InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Walk Through Hell ❯ Through Hell ( Chapter 2 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: King Baka 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Thriller / Romance / Psychological / Adventure | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 11.07.2016 | Pages: 10 | Words: 7.6K | Visits: 354 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Thriller / Romance / Psychological / Adventure | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 11.07.2016 | Pages: 10 | Words: 7.6K | Visits: 354 | Status: Completed
Kagome blanched. She had to forcefully repress the sudden
urge to do something which might reveal her hiding place—like
vomit. For the first time all morning, she was glad that she
hadn’t eaten anything since last night. Crinkling her
face in revulsion, she wondered why men had to be so gross.
“Ah, damn that feels good!”
She was sure it did, but that didn’t make it any less disgusting. This idiot and some of his buddies were currently standing in the river, washing their balls. And she, hiding behind some piss-poor excuse for a rock a half dozen meters away, was forced to watch. She couldn’t close her eyes and take a chance that one of them would see her and get the drop on her. She only looked away long enough to make sure that no one was sneaking up behind her. And then her gaze was right back on the free-balling idiots in the river.
Again, men were disgusting. Standing on a river where anyone could see you? No problem! Just whip out your junk and fondle yourself as much as you want. Then again, these men didn’t seem very concerned with appearances. Or hygiene. But she was less worried about their body odor than she was about the weapons on their hips, and the general aura of danger surrounding them. These were not soldiers loyal to some feudal lord, who might help her if she asked—though even that proposition was too risky to actually take a chance on unless she was truly desperate. No matter what, she would not be captured by these guys. She didn’t want to go for another swim, but if it meant keeping her away from them, she would dive in without hesitation.
As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened. Her hiding place wasn’t quite good enough to avoid detection, and she was in the water and swimming as if her life depended on it before the idiot who spotted her finished his ‘hey, look what we have here’ drawl. She didn’t look back until she was a fair distance from shore, and was relieved to see that the bandits were not pursuing. As she’d hoped, they apparently didn’t think she was worth the effort. The current was carrying her downstream from them, so she could conceivably swim back to the same side of the river, but she didn’t see any reason to do that while she was strong enough to make it to the opposite bank.
By the time she climbed out of the water, tired but unharmed, she had made a decision. The river was her lifeline. It was literally her only source of protection from men in heavy armour and dubious swimming skills. No more walking up on the valley floor. Yes, she could see farther, but she was also farther from her refuge. No matter what, she had to have her head on a swivel at all times. If she was going to survive, she had to be both smart and alert.
Her resolve was tested not fifteen minutes later, as her ears picked up the low rumble of marching feet, coming ever closer. Taking no chances, Kagome dove into the water and swam out to a partially submerged log which she had identified from a distance a couple minutes ago as a decent emergency hiding place. Then she waited, watching as two or three hundred men marched past in a loose column. They halted a hundred meters downstream from her to rest and water their horses, then resumed their march in a northwesterly direction. She was glad to see them moving away from the river, but the prolonged exposure to fairly cold water with no physical activity to keep her warm took its toll. By the time she paddled wearily back to shore, she was shivering moderately and was ready to be done with this whole ‘survival in the wilderness’ thing. She didn’t care what Inuyasha said; if she made it out of this, they were heading straight back to the well and she was spending a solid week in her time. Still, as long as it was sunny, she would be able to warm up fairly quickly.
Then a patch of clouds moved to cover the sun, and refused to budge. Kagome’s clothes were only partially dry by that point, but she wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. And hey, at least it isn’t raining. A few minutes later, she would regret that thought. As if reading her mind, the skies darkened quickly and it began to rain. Hard.
Kagome rarely swore, but she did mutter a few curses at this turn of events. Not that it did any good. The storm was moving very slowly from east to west, and it looked like it would take a long time pass overhead. Perhaps this was why the mercenary army had high-tailed it in the other direction, hoping to stay ahead of the rain for as long as possible or even avoid it altogether if the clouds dissipated. Kagome could only gaze longingly at the blue skies shining over the western side of the valley. She was afraid to leave the river, and she was also afraid to build a fire for warmth. No one was likely to stumble across her in this weather, but any nearby humans might investigate the glow of a fire, especially as it became darker out. Though she was cold, her need for a fire was not dire enough to take that risk.
Day turned to evening, without any abatement in the downpour. Kagome found some shelter in the form of a small overhang of rock along the bank, but every time the wind blew the rain would batter her all over again. She could only huddle to expose as little of her body to the elements as possible, and clench her jaw to prevent her teeth from chattering. Too uncomfortable and nervous to sleep, she settled in for a long, miserable night.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, he rose to his feet. Kagome deserved better than this, to lie in the middle of a battlefield until she wasted away or scavengers got to her. She deserved a proper burial with her family in attendance, but he knew that he would never be able to bring her body all the way back to the bone eater’s well before it started to decompose. He thought he had heard that cremation was a more common practice in her time anyway. So that is what he would do. He would build a funeral pyre, burn her body, find a suitable container and bring some of the ashes back to her family. At least a part of her would be able to return home, to the family who loved her. Mrs. Higurashi especially deserved that consideration, and to know what had happened. He would give her the chance to rant and rave, and punish him in any manner which she saw fit. He would not beg for her forgiveness, nor would he refuse any demand which she made of him, including the taking of his own life. He might actually consider such a demand to be a mercy.
Drawing strength from his new purpose, Inuyasha set to work. It was easy to gather enough wood from the ruins of the campsite to build a small pyre. Some of the campfires still burned, so lighting the pyre would be simple as well. Preparations made, the hanyou returned to the tent where his life had ended. Kagome still lay exactly as he had left her, wrapped in his suikan. The garment had to be removed, however, since the fire-rat fabric would not burn. So he clothed her in his kosode instead. Then he forced himself to don his suikan once more, knowing the scents it carried would serve as a constant reminder of his failure, of what his weakness had cost them.
Kagome looked so peaceful lying atop the pyre, clad in pure white. She had been too good for this world, too precious for a worthless hanyou who couldn’t protect her. She would suffer no more. He stuck a piece of wood in a campfire until the flames caught, and then returned to his beloved’s side. After a final, brief hesitation, he reached back to toss the makeshift torch onto the pyre.
A distinctive snapping sound stilled his hand, causing his ears to swivel atop his head. Deciding it was just some animal slinking through the darkness, he returned to his task. Another snap stopped him, closer this time, and quickly followed by a growing cacophony of rustling and scraping. If these were animals, they were treading and crawling noisily across the earth, and there were many of them. But they didn’t sound like animals.
He turned and gasped, the burning wood slipping from his grasp and clattering to the ground. This couldn’t be…it wasn’t possible. But unless his eyes were lying to him, the impossible had become reality. All across camp, the mercenaries were climbing to their feet. Some were missing limbs, others had their heads hanging from their necks by thin flaps of flesh. All should have been dead.
As they surrounded him in a rough half-circle, Inuyasha realized that the mercenaries were in fact still dead. Somehow they had risen, but life had not returned. This was different from Kagura’s corpse dance, however; their eyes possessed a certain basic intelligence, an overwhelming drive to satiate a ravenous hunger. It was obvious whom they intended to feed upon. Inuyasha cracked his knuckles as his lips twisted into a sadistic sneer. These bastards should have stayed dead. He would gladly help them return to their eternal rest.
It was over in a matter of minutes. The reanimated corpses were surprisingly agile, moving almost as well as their owners had during life. But they were still no match for a determined hanyou, especially one who employed all of his youki-based attacks this time. More enemies fell to blades of youki than to claw, slicing the corpses into as many pieces as it took to put them down for good. The dead could rise from mortal wounds, but they could not reassemble themselves once dismembered. Inuyasha had no idea why they had reanimated in the first place, but they would not be rising again. His grim task complete, he turned back to the funeral pyre and froze in shock.
Kagome was gone. He sprinted to the other side of the pyre, thinking that perhaps she had fallen off due to shoddy construction, but her body was nowhere to be found. His head snapped up at the sound of footsteps behind him, cold dread settling in the pit of his stomach. The very air surrounding him seemed to vibrate with the creature’s low growl, which was nevertheless higher in pitch than any of the vocalizations made by the reanimated mercenaries. Fear gripped Inuyasha suddenly, scorching every nerve, his heartbeat racing in his chest. No…please, no…not that… Somehow, he knew his pleas would go unanswered. Slowly, haltingly, he turned to face his nemesis.
His knees buckled, and he stumbled back, barely managing to remain on his feet. He continued to back away, as the creature once known as Kagome advanced upon him, her ravenous eyes boring hungrily into his own. Every inhuman snarl reverberating from her throat was a knife stabbing into his gut. Part of him wanted to put her down, the same as the mercenaries. But could he really do it? Was this still Kagome, or just a walking corpse? If there was any trace of Kagome left, was there a way to save her? Could her soul be recalled, or was it lost forever?
Inuyasha’s mind imploded. Questions he couldn’t answer, a dilemma which threatened to paralyze him. The snarling, undead visage of his beloved. It was too much. He turned and fled into the night.
It looked like dawn would be arriving any minute, so she decided to get up and greet the day. She stifled a grimace as her stiff limbs protested her movements, but it felt good to stand and stretch after being holed up in her little alcove all night. It didn’t feel so nice to have a full bladder, a problem which she quickly rectified. After a revitalizing drink from the river, which satisfied her thirst but only served to remind her of how hungry she was getting, Kagome sat on a convenient rock to watch the sunrise and revisit her survival strategy.
Her best bet was still finding a human settlement. Her hunger pangs weren’t going away, and she wasn’t delusional enough to believe that she would be able to find or catch enough food on her own. She could survive for a while without food, since she had water, but her strength would gradually wane. She could conserve energy by staying put and waiting for rescue, but that idea still didn’t sit well with her so she decided to press on for another day. She did, however, take a couple hours to remove her socks and shoes and dry them in the sun as best she could. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. Hopefully she wouldn’t need to go swimming today. Or get rained on, for that matter.
By mid-morning, her spirits were truly on the rise. She had not seen nor heard any sign of armed men, and she actually wasn’t cold for the first time in almost twenty-four hours. The sky was dyed a beautiful shade of blue, the weather almost urging her toward optimism. She was going to find a village today, she just knew it!
It was around this time that she noticed smoke rising in the distance. Not the thin cloud one would expect from a campfire or even a bonfire, but a great black haze ascending into the sky. Kagome’s heart sank. That smoke was too vast to have originated from any controlled blaze; either a brushfire had started on the plain, or some large manmade structures were burning. She had an uneasy feeling that it was the latter. But she had to keep moving forward. She wasn’t going to turn back or leave the river, so if the current led her to the source of the smoke, then so be it. She would proceed with caution, in any case.
Another hour of walking carried her to a terrible scene. She had indeed found a human settlement, or more accurately, what was left of one. What had once been a quaint village much like Kaede’s was now a smoldering ruin. Most of the huts had burned down to cinders, charred skeletons of wood marking the places where structures had previously stood. More disturbing than the devastated buildings was the sight of the villagers’ bodies, and the smell of burnt flesh. The smart thing to do would be to move on, to get as far away from here as possible in case the perpetrators returned. But she couldn’t do that, not until she’d checked for survivors. If anyone had survived the raid, they were probably in dire need of assistance, and it was not in her nature to ignore those in need.
After carefully checking to make sure the coast was clear, she crept quietly into the village. Her adventures in the feudal era had left her somewhat desensitized to death, so inspecting the bodies didn’t bother her very much. She would have time later to ruminate on whether or not that was a good thing. For now, she said a brief prayer over each corpse and moved on. She couldn’t spare the energy required to do anything more. If she reunited with her friends then perhaps the whole group could return and bury the bodies. They had certainly done that before. But for now the villagers would have to lie where they fell. Once she had checked for survivors, she would see if anything edible had survived the fire, and then get the hell out of here.
She didn’t come across another living soul until she reached the outskirts of the village, on the side facing the valley. A man lay in the street on his back, the dirt around him darkened with his blood. He still clutched a hunter’s bow in his hand, and had a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. It was not the first evidence she had seen of the villagers’ futile attempts to defend themselves, but it was still a poignant scene. This man perished trying to protect those who were precious to him, but there was no glory in his sacrifice. Everyone had died anyway.
Or perhaps not. A woman lay sprawled on her back nearby, also bleeding from severe wounds, a spear lying across her torso. Kagome actually said a prayer over her body, but caught the subtle signs of her breathing in her peripheral vision as she turned away. It was only the more obvious motion of the spear point which allowed her to see the incredibly shallow rise of her chest. She immediately knelt by the woman’s side and attempted to rouse her. The woman opened her eyes after a moment, her unfocused gaze staring up at the sky.
“Mi…” she whispered. “Mi…”
“Mizu?” Kagome finished. “You want water?”
The woman slipped into unconsciousness before responding, but Kagome immediately stood and jogged down to the river, picking up a small bowl along the way. She wasn’t going to ignore a final request from someone who was clearly dying. If the water helped to ease her passing, even a little, then in Kagome’s mind it was well worth the effort. Unfortunately, by the time she returned, what little life remained in the woman had already departed. Sighing sadly, she said a prayer over the body and moved on.
Next she came to a hut which was only partially destroyed; some quirk of wind or blaze had put out the fire before it fully consumed the structure. Most of three walls and the roof had collapsed inward, leaving a pile of charred timber, out of which stuck a small human hand. Kagome closed her eyes for a moment, her sorrow deepening. She wondered if the woman had really been asking for water, after all. Perhaps this was her child, and his or her name began with the syllable ‘mi.’ It seemed like a despairingly strong possibility. The man in the street was probably the father. Hopefully the little family would be reunited in the afterlife.
Kagome began to pray over the pile of rubble covering the body, and nearly jumped a meter in the air when the small hand twitched suddenly. As she watched, it moved again, with definite intent this time. That was all the encouragement she needed to kneel in the ruins of the hut and begin pulling aside debris. What she found underneath the burnt wood sent a stabbing pain through her chest.
It was a little boy, about Souta’s age. He could probably have passed for her brother’s second or third cousin, except for the severe burns marring one side of his face. He stared at her with his one good eye, the mahogany orb darkened with agony. Kagome didn’t need medical training to comprehend the truth. This boy wasn’t going to make it. His body was too broken, too badly burned. It was a miracle that he still clung to life. He tried to speak, but only ended up wheezing and coughing up blood. Kagome clasped her hand in his, seeking to offer whatever comfort she could, but he shook his head so she let him go. She soon discovered why he had rejected her touch. He weakly raised his hand and pointed in the direction where his mother lay.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Kagome told him, blinking back tears. “But she…didn’t make it.”
Again he shook his head, his lips moving with purpose. When Kagome failed to read them the first time, he repeated the message, again pointing toward his mother’s body. It took a third attempt before she finally interpreted the silent plea correctly.
“You want the spear?”
He nodded, and Kagome frowned in confusion. Why would he— She gasped, suddenly comprehending why he desired the spear, and what he was asking her to do. Every fiber of her being cried out, demanding that she refuse. How could she help a child commit suicide? It went against everything she stood for. On the other hand, how could she allow him to continue to suffer, when there was no hope that he would survive his wounds? Didn’t he have a right to choose death? Earlier she had reflected that it was a miracle that he still lived. Perhaps it was more of a curse than a miracle. If she was in his situation, lying mortally wounded next to the bodies of everyone who loved her, would she want to continue clinging to life? Or would she ask an unlucky passerby to help her end it all?
As she knelt there paralyzed, grappling with this intensely emotional dilemma, Kagome felt the boy’s small hand come to rest atop her own. His skin was shockingly cold to the touch, and his expression was desperate, pleading.
“Please,” he rasped, immediately descending into a coughing fit which brutally wracked his small form. Kagome sobbed, knowing that no matter what it did to her, she couldn’t let this child suffer any longer. She stood on shaking legs, and retrieved the spear. Then she held it over him, the sharp metal point positioned directly above his neck. It was difficult to keep the weapon steady due to her trembling. She had been hoping that the boy would be able to make the final thrust if she held the shaft upright for him, but he was too weak to raise his arm high enough. His eyes pleaded with her once more, begging her to end his pain. Again, every fiber of her being screamed in protest. But she had to do this. She couldn’t let this poor boy suffer any longer. She desperately wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, but if she did, she might err with her aim and fail to inflict a mortal wound, thereby causing him even more pain. And that was something she would never allow herself to do.
Instincts of self-preservation made one final attempt, but she refused to change her mind. But as she took a shuddering breath and began a grim mental countdown, she had to wonder how much of her sanity this act of mercy would cost her.
Three…two…one…
With a cry which was half sob and half wail, she thrust the spear. The boy’s eyes widened in shock, as though he hadn’t known what to expect. But the gratitude in his expression never wavered, even as he gurgled blood and his body spasmed weakly in its final throes. It was over quickly. The boy’s head lolled to the side, and his body finally stilled.
Kagome didn’t remember collapsing to the ground. She didn’t remember curling into the fetal position, or being struck lightly by the shaft of the spear as it fell, still embedded in the boy’s neck. When she regained awareness of herself, in what could have been minutes or hours later, all she knew was that she had been crying bitterly. She seemed to recall rejecting a strong temptation to continue lying in the ruins of that hut, and never rise again. The idea seemed ludicrous now. She had too much to live for. Sango and Miroku could never live happily together until Naraku was slain and the jewel banished from this world, and Inuyasha would never find peace. Even if this experience left her permanently scarred, it didn’t change her responsibility to help her friends finally achieve their own dreams, or lessen the love she held for them.
So she got up, rising from the ashes of what had once been a young family’s home. She spared a final glance at the boy, said a prayer over his body, and turned to return to the river. She did not get far.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Those words had her spinning around to face the valley, where a grizzled man stood leering at her with a lascivious expression. He wore tattered armour and held a dull sword in his right hand. Despite his unkempt appearance, Kagome wasn’t sure she could outrun him to the river. But given his obvious intentions for her, she was certainly going to try. Again, she didn’t make it far. The sight of another man standing in the street behind her, and a third off to the other side, stilled her in her tracks. They surrounded her in a rough circle, all smirking and ogling her openly. She spun back to face the first man as he spoke again.
“Nowhere to run, girl. You might as well give up now. It’ll go better for you that way.”
He advanced menacingly toward her, and she backed away out of reflex until her heel caught on something unexpectedly and she fell onto her backside, unwittingly giving the bandit quite a show.
“Phew!” he exclaimed with a snicker. “That sure is a short kimono. I’m starting to think that you might actually be looking forward to this.”
Fighting off panic, Kagome started to rise, but froze as she glimpsed the object which had tripped her. It was the arm of the father whom she had seen lying in the street earlier. His hand still clutched his hunting bow, which she immediately claimed. Before the sniggering bandits could react, she had the quiver of arrows strapped to her back and a projectile drawn and aimed squarely at the talkative one’s chest. His mirth faded quickly, though his smirk did not disappear. Kagome waited until they were finished with another round of vulgar comments, then spoke in as firm a voice as she could muster
“Back off!”
“Or what?” the leader challenged. “You probably couldn’t hit water if you were standing on a beach.”
“I’ll k-kill you if you come any closer,” she threatened, cursing herself for her stutter. At this point, she honestly wasn’t sure if she was bluffing or not. She didn’t want to kill again, today or ever. Could she bring herself to do it, even in self-defense?
The bandit sneered. “Well, if you think you can k-kill me, then go right ahead. Just don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you now.”
He stepped forward. Kagome loosed her arrow. The bandit’s eyes flew wide in shock at the unexpectedly straight path of the projectile. After a futile effort to block the arrow with his sword, he screamed in pain and sank to his knees as it embedded itself firmly in his thigh. Kagome didn’t know if it was a mistake to lower her aim at the last possible instant to inflict a non-lethal wound, and she didn’t have time to question it now. She sprinted past the downed man, his two cohorts in hot pursuit.
This was not good. As she feared, the men were gaining on her quickly, courtesy of their longer legs and the fact that they probably hadn’t gone almost forty-eight hours without food. She was never going to make it to the river. One of them made a grab for her, but she twisted away from his grasp. This nearly send her careening into the other bandit, who reached out and whacked her hard with the scabbard of his sword. She toppled to the ground, rolling over once, her survival instincts switching from flight back to fight in an instant. She came up with an arrow in hand, nocked it and drew back the bowstring in a single fluid motion. There was no time to aim or think, only to react. Her vision was entirely consumed by the sight of the nearest man bearing down on her. She fired.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. The bandit’s expression shifted to one of bemusement, as though he could not understand the sensations running through his body. His left eye blinked once, rapidly becoming unfocused. His right eye did nothing, having been nearly destroyed by the arrow which had passed through it and embedded itself in his brain. He seemed to lose all strength in his muscles, his coordinated and efficient sprint abruptly terminating as he collapsed face first into the dirt. He did not rise. The shaft of the arrow caught on the ground, resulting in his head being tilted backward and turned to the side. Thus, Kagome was presented with a perfect view of his face, the face of the man whom she had just murdered. She could not take her eyes off of it.
At least, not until another body slammed into hers, bearing her to the ground. She lay on her back, still too stunned to react, as a pair of hands clasped around her neck, cutting off her airway. Her gaze came to rest on the owner of those hands, his face twisted into a silent snarl. Gone was the humor, the lust; all that remained was pure rage. Perhaps the man she had killed was a relative, she reflected, or at the very least a very close friend. It didn’t matter now. It would be so easy to surrender, to simply let go. She was tempted again, as the face of the dead man swam before her mind’s eye. Logic said that she had killed in self-defense, but logic held no sway over the swirl of emotions ravaging her mind.
It took her longer this time, to muster her resolve. The battle to rediscover her will to live was more arduous than before, but she eventually prevailed all the same. Will to live, by itself, however, was not enough. Without the physical strength to convert it to reality, will was meaningless. And her lungs were already beginning to burn from lack of oxygen.
Her hands shot up, clawing at the face of her assailant. But his arms were longer than hers, and he repositioned his knees to pin her shoulders to keep her fingernails at bay. Kagome barely managed to suck in a desperate gasp of air during his brief moment of distraction, but then he redoubled the pressure on her neck. She continued to struggle, her resistance weakening as her body’s need for oxygen spiraled to critical levels. Finally, as her vision swam and blackness began to seep into her consciousness, she was forced to confront cold reality. No matter how badly she wanted to live, she simply did not possess the physical strength to throw this man off of her. He outweighed her by too much pure muscle, and held a dominant position above her. She was going to die.
Salvation arrived as she was in the middle of contemplating her final regrets. The pressure on her throat suddenly vanished, replaced by a spray of liquid which soaked her to the skin. Some of the metallic fluid fell into her mouth as she gasped for air, but that did not stop her from inhaling a massive lungful. Her abused throat throbbed in pain, but oxygen was too sweet an elixir not to savor again and again. Some sodden objects collapsed against both of her sides, but she was initially too busy bingeing on air to care what they were. She did, however, snap back to full awareness upon hearing a shout from somewhere in the distance.
“No! Stay back you monster!” The voice was masculine, though the tone was raised by absolute terror to the point of cracking. The scream which followed was abruptly silenced by the gruesomely wet sounds of flesh being torn asunder. Kagome’s relief returned to fear in an instant. Whatever ‘monster’ had dispatched her immediate assailant, leaving her covered in what she could only assume were his blood and body parts, it had also hunted down and executed the man she shot in the leg earlier. And now she and the monster were alone. With dread settling in her gut, she sat up slowly and opened her eyes.
The monster was a familiar terror. He stalked toward her, fangs bared, his claws dripping with blood. But what scared her the most was the absolute lack of any sense of recognition in his scarlet orbs. She could detect no sign of higher intelligence; this was a monster, operating solely on his baser instincts. He would kill for the sake of killing, until he could kill no more. Still, she had to try to reach him.
“Inuyasha, it’s me, Kagome.”
No response.
“Inuyasha, please! Don’t you recognize me?”
The monster raised his claws, cracking his knuckles in preparation for another strike, as his lips curved upward into a joyful sneer. Kagome resisted the urge to flee for her life. It would do her no good; there had to be another way to stop him. Use the bow. Save yourself. She wasn’t sure if that voice came from within or without, but her survival instincts certainly agreed. She quickly rearmed herself, drew an arrow and took aim. The monster continued his advance undeterred.
Kagome hesitated then, an odd thought occurring to her. In her mind, she kept referring to this youkai as ‘the monster.’ But it wasn’t just a monster, it was Inuyasha. And could she really shoot Inuyasha in order to save her own life? That is not Inuyasha. Inuyasha is gone. He can never come back. If that was true, then logically she should shoot him. The hanyou whom she had fallen in love with would want her to do just that, if the alternative was him slaughtering her in cold blood. But she couldn’t be certain that her Inuyasha truly was beyond reach, no matter how sure the voice in her head sounded. Still, there was no way for her to avoid choosing between the two extremes. Her pulse quickened with each menacing step, her nerves flaring uncontrollably. Soon her arms were shaking so badly that she could no longer be certain that the arrow would fly where she aimed it. She might aim for his leg and accidentally strike his heart. Nothing aside from a lethal shot was likely to stop him at any rate.
So this really was a story of two extremes, with nothing in between. One choice led to Inuyasha’s death, the other to her own. Because barring what seemed like the most impossible of miracles, the youkai before her was not going to suddenly recognize her. It truly did appear that he had lost all of his humanity, the dire warnings concerning his full-youkai transformations having finally come to pass.
Kagome had to wonder just how strong her will to live truly was. It surged within her, powerful and convincing, loosening her hold on the drawn arrow. Only her rebellious heart prevented the projectile’s release. The monster launched himself into a dead sprint, letting loose a savage growl. He would be upon her in less than a second. She was out of time. Shoot him! Shoot him now!
The bow and arrow clattered harmlessly to the ground beside her. With no hope left to her, but at peace with her decision, Kagome closed her eyes and waited for the final blow to fall.
It never came. No claws cut into her flesh, and the only sound which greeted her ears was that of her own heavy breathing. Eventually she gathered up the courage to open her eyes and scan her surroundings. She was alone.
Choked laughter burst uncontrollably from her throat, the relieved mirth of a woman who only moments prior had been completely certain of impending death. But Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen. The only sign that he had been here at all were the dismembered corpses of his victims. The realization that one of said victims was lying on top of her in still-bleeding pieces caused the bile to rise in Kagome’s throat, but she managed to prevent herself from vomiting, in large part because there was nothing in her stomach to purge. Scrambling away from the corpse did nothing to remove the blood which covered her entire front, from forehead to toes. Cleaning herself was a top priority, for practical as well as psychological reasons. After that, she would try to figure out where Inuyasha had disappeared to, and why he hadn’t killed her. She tried not to get her hopes up, but the fact that she was still alive had to mean something, right?
She stretched out her spiritual senses and was immediately confronted with an intensely disquieting sensation. It was similar to the feeling of wrongness which she experienced in the cave two evenings prior, she realized. This was not the first time since then that she had accessed her spiritual energy—she had taken to periodically scanning for youkai auras during her journey along the riverbank—but it was the first time she had encountered anything like this. It was almost as though a veil had been lifted from her eyes, and she could see things much more clearly. But as before, she couldn’t identify the strange feeling or truly comprehend the reason behind it. It was still a mystery, one she sensed that she would need to solve in order to find Inuyasha and get them both out of this mess.
But first, she headed down to the river and began to scrub the blood off of her exposed skin. Her clothes were probably a lost cause, and she didn’t want to strip in order to wash them anyway. Perhaps she could find something wearable in the village. As she washed her legs, she continued to ruminate upon her ever-changing situation. It was humorous, in a dark sort of way. Up until now, she had been counting on her friends to come to her rescue. But it was now abundantly clear that Inuyasha was not capable of rescuing anyone, and she didn’t want to think about what might have happened to the rest of their companions. She would worry, of course, but she had to bury those concerns in order to ensure her own survival and help Inuyasha. She could only hope that he was not beyond saving.
Satisfied with her handiwork and feeling much better for it, Kagome stood and focused her spiritual energy once more. She stretched her senses as far as she could, searching for any trace of Inuyasha’s aura. Unfortunately her range was not that far, and she could detect no sign of his presence. Her concentration faltered abruptly as something new brushed against her consciousness. A sudden compulsion gripped her, to move across the valley as quickly as possible. Her nerves flared, the physical manifestation of the overpowering sense of urgency coursing through her. And unlike the disembodied voice she had heard earlier, she could tell that this instinct came from within.
As she ran across the plain, the world around her seemed to shift before her eyes. The trees and mountains in the distance appeared to blur in and out of focus, as though she was under the influence of alcohol. Somehow she knew that the cause of the odd visual display had nothing to do with her physical condition, however. What did it mean? Her brain continued to work toward an answer, but all thoughts of solving that mystery dissipated when she sensed Inuyasha’s aura up ahead. Her immense relief that he felt like a hanyou again was dampened by the way his aura flickered with distress. Inuyasha was in deep trouble.
Ignoring the stitch in her side, Kagome quickened her pace, sprinting across the plain as fast as her legs could carry her.
“Ah, damn that feels good!”
She was sure it did, but that didn’t make it any less disgusting. This idiot and some of his buddies were currently standing in the river, washing their balls. And she, hiding behind some piss-poor excuse for a rock a half dozen meters away, was forced to watch. She couldn’t close her eyes and take a chance that one of them would see her and get the drop on her. She only looked away long enough to make sure that no one was sneaking up behind her. And then her gaze was right back on the free-balling idiots in the river.
Again, men were disgusting. Standing on a river where anyone could see you? No problem! Just whip out your junk and fondle yourself as much as you want. Then again, these men didn’t seem very concerned with appearances. Or hygiene. But she was less worried about their body odor than she was about the weapons on their hips, and the general aura of danger surrounding them. These were not soldiers loyal to some feudal lord, who might help her if she asked—though even that proposition was too risky to actually take a chance on unless she was truly desperate. No matter what, she would not be captured by these guys. She didn’t want to go for another swim, but if it meant keeping her away from them, she would dive in without hesitation.
As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened. Her hiding place wasn’t quite good enough to avoid detection, and she was in the water and swimming as if her life depended on it before the idiot who spotted her finished his ‘hey, look what we have here’ drawl. She didn’t look back until she was a fair distance from shore, and was relieved to see that the bandits were not pursuing. As she’d hoped, they apparently didn’t think she was worth the effort. The current was carrying her downstream from them, so she could conceivably swim back to the same side of the river, but she didn’t see any reason to do that while she was strong enough to make it to the opposite bank.
By the time she climbed out of the water, tired but unharmed, she had made a decision. The river was her lifeline. It was literally her only source of protection from men in heavy armour and dubious swimming skills. No more walking up on the valley floor. Yes, she could see farther, but she was also farther from her refuge. No matter what, she had to have her head on a swivel at all times. If she was going to survive, she had to be both smart and alert.
Her resolve was tested not fifteen minutes later, as her ears picked up the low rumble of marching feet, coming ever closer. Taking no chances, Kagome dove into the water and swam out to a partially submerged log which she had identified from a distance a couple minutes ago as a decent emergency hiding place. Then she waited, watching as two or three hundred men marched past in a loose column. They halted a hundred meters downstream from her to rest and water their horses, then resumed their march in a northwesterly direction. She was glad to see them moving away from the river, but the prolonged exposure to fairly cold water with no physical activity to keep her warm took its toll. By the time she paddled wearily back to shore, she was shivering moderately and was ready to be done with this whole ‘survival in the wilderness’ thing. She didn’t care what Inuyasha said; if she made it out of this, they were heading straight back to the well and she was spending a solid week in her time. Still, as long as it was sunny, she would be able to warm up fairly quickly.
Then a patch of clouds moved to cover the sun, and refused to budge. Kagome’s clothes were only partially dry by that point, but she wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. And hey, at least it isn’t raining. A few minutes later, she would regret that thought. As if reading her mind, the skies darkened quickly and it began to rain. Hard.
Kagome rarely swore, but she did mutter a few curses at this turn of events. Not that it did any good. The storm was moving very slowly from east to west, and it looked like it would take a long time pass overhead. Perhaps this was why the mercenary army had high-tailed it in the other direction, hoping to stay ahead of the rain for as long as possible or even avoid it altogether if the clouds dissipated. Kagome could only gaze longingly at the blue skies shining over the western side of the valley. She was afraid to leave the river, and she was also afraid to build a fire for warmth. No one was likely to stumble across her in this weather, but any nearby humans might investigate the glow of a fire, especially as it became darker out. Though she was cold, her need for a fire was not dire enough to take that risk.
Day turned to evening, without any abatement in the downpour. Kagome found some shelter in the form of a small overhang of rock along the bank, but every time the wind blew the rain would batter her all over again. She could only huddle to expose as little of her body to the elements as possible, and clench her jaw to prevent her teeth from chattering. Too uncomfortable and nervous to sleep, she settled in for a long, miserable night.
* * *
Inuyasha’s eyes snapped open. His mind felt clouded, as
if grappling with some sort of strange intoxication, but he fought
through it. What had he asked himself again? Is
there any point in rising from this field? Yes, that was
it. For a few moments, as he sank toward what felt like an
oddly perpetual slumber, he had not been able to come up with a
reason to move from this spot. Then Kagome’s face swam
before his mind’s eye. Not the smiling, carefree face
which used to warm his heart, but the one she now possessed,
heavily bruised and set in the eternal mask of death. He had
failed her in life. Would he fail her in death as well?
Slowly, almost reluctantly, he rose to his feet. Kagome deserved better than this, to lie in the middle of a battlefield until she wasted away or scavengers got to her. She deserved a proper burial with her family in attendance, but he knew that he would never be able to bring her body all the way back to the bone eater’s well before it started to decompose. He thought he had heard that cremation was a more common practice in her time anyway. So that is what he would do. He would build a funeral pyre, burn her body, find a suitable container and bring some of the ashes back to her family. At least a part of her would be able to return home, to the family who loved her. Mrs. Higurashi especially deserved that consideration, and to know what had happened. He would give her the chance to rant and rave, and punish him in any manner which she saw fit. He would not beg for her forgiveness, nor would he refuse any demand which she made of him, including the taking of his own life. He might actually consider such a demand to be a mercy.
Drawing strength from his new purpose, Inuyasha set to work. It was easy to gather enough wood from the ruins of the campsite to build a small pyre. Some of the campfires still burned, so lighting the pyre would be simple as well. Preparations made, the hanyou returned to the tent where his life had ended. Kagome still lay exactly as he had left her, wrapped in his suikan. The garment had to be removed, however, since the fire-rat fabric would not burn. So he clothed her in his kosode instead. Then he forced himself to don his suikan once more, knowing the scents it carried would serve as a constant reminder of his failure, of what his weakness had cost them.
Kagome looked so peaceful lying atop the pyre, clad in pure white. She had been too good for this world, too precious for a worthless hanyou who couldn’t protect her. She would suffer no more. He stuck a piece of wood in a campfire until the flames caught, and then returned to his beloved’s side. After a final, brief hesitation, he reached back to toss the makeshift torch onto the pyre.
A distinctive snapping sound stilled his hand, causing his ears to swivel atop his head. Deciding it was just some animal slinking through the darkness, he returned to his task. Another snap stopped him, closer this time, and quickly followed by a growing cacophony of rustling and scraping. If these were animals, they were treading and crawling noisily across the earth, and there were many of them. But they didn’t sound like animals.
He turned and gasped, the burning wood slipping from his grasp and clattering to the ground. This couldn’t be…it wasn’t possible. But unless his eyes were lying to him, the impossible had become reality. All across camp, the mercenaries were climbing to their feet. Some were missing limbs, others had their heads hanging from their necks by thin flaps of flesh. All should have been dead.
As they surrounded him in a rough half-circle, Inuyasha realized that the mercenaries were in fact still dead. Somehow they had risen, but life had not returned. This was different from Kagura’s corpse dance, however; their eyes possessed a certain basic intelligence, an overwhelming drive to satiate a ravenous hunger. It was obvious whom they intended to feed upon. Inuyasha cracked his knuckles as his lips twisted into a sadistic sneer. These bastards should have stayed dead. He would gladly help them return to their eternal rest.
It was over in a matter of minutes. The reanimated corpses were surprisingly agile, moving almost as well as their owners had during life. But they were still no match for a determined hanyou, especially one who employed all of his youki-based attacks this time. More enemies fell to blades of youki than to claw, slicing the corpses into as many pieces as it took to put them down for good. The dead could rise from mortal wounds, but they could not reassemble themselves once dismembered. Inuyasha had no idea why they had reanimated in the first place, but they would not be rising again. His grim task complete, he turned back to the funeral pyre and froze in shock.
Kagome was gone. He sprinted to the other side of the pyre, thinking that perhaps she had fallen off due to shoddy construction, but her body was nowhere to be found. His head snapped up at the sound of footsteps behind him, cold dread settling in the pit of his stomach. The very air surrounding him seemed to vibrate with the creature’s low growl, which was nevertheless higher in pitch than any of the vocalizations made by the reanimated mercenaries. Fear gripped Inuyasha suddenly, scorching every nerve, his heartbeat racing in his chest. No…please, no…not that… Somehow, he knew his pleas would go unanswered. Slowly, haltingly, he turned to face his nemesis.
His knees buckled, and he stumbled back, barely managing to remain on his feet. He continued to back away, as the creature once known as Kagome advanced upon him, her ravenous eyes boring hungrily into his own. Every inhuman snarl reverberating from her throat was a knife stabbing into his gut. Part of him wanted to put her down, the same as the mercenaries. But could he really do it? Was this still Kagome, or just a walking corpse? If there was any trace of Kagome left, was there a way to save her? Could her soul be recalled, or was it lost forever?
Inuyasha’s mind imploded. Questions he couldn’t answer, a dilemma which threatened to paralyze him. The snarling, undead visage of his beloved. It was too much. He turned and fled into the night.
* * *
Kagome bolted awake, her eyes darting in every direction before her
momentary panic subsided. She hadn’t intended to fall
asleep, but fatigue and the endless monotony of a rainy evening
must have gotten to her, probably in the early hours of the
morning. Since apparently no one had stumbled across her
during the night, she figured that the sleep was probably a good
thing. A half night’s worth of shuteye was certainly
better than none. It looked like dawn would be arriving any minute, so she decided to get up and greet the day. She stifled a grimace as her stiff limbs protested her movements, but it felt good to stand and stretch after being holed up in her little alcove all night. It didn’t feel so nice to have a full bladder, a problem which she quickly rectified. After a revitalizing drink from the river, which satisfied her thirst but only served to remind her of how hungry she was getting, Kagome sat on a convenient rock to watch the sunrise and revisit her survival strategy.
Her best bet was still finding a human settlement. Her hunger pangs weren’t going away, and she wasn’t delusional enough to believe that she would be able to find or catch enough food on her own. She could survive for a while without food, since she had water, but her strength would gradually wane. She could conserve energy by staying put and waiting for rescue, but that idea still didn’t sit well with her so she decided to press on for another day. She did, however, take a couple hours to remove her socks and shoes and dry them in the sun as best she could. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. Hopefully she wouldn’t need to go swimming today. Or get rained on, for that matter.
By mid-morning, her spirits were truly on the rise. She had not seen nor heard any sign of armed men, and she actually wasn’t cold for the first time in almost twenty-four hours. The sky was dyed a beautiful shade of blue, the weather almost urging her toward optimism. She was going to find a village today, she just knew it!
It was around this time that she noticed smoke rising in the distance. Not the thin cloud one would expect from a campfire or even a bonfire, but a great black haze ascending into the sky. Kagome’s heart sank. That smoke was too vast to have originated from any controlled blaze; either a brushfire had started on the plain, or some large manmade structures were burning. She had an uneasy feeling that it was the latter. But she had to keep moving forward. She wasn’t going to turn back or leave the river, so if the current led her to the source of the smoke, then so be it. She would proceed with caution, in any case.
Another hour of walking carried her to a terrible scene. She had indeed found a human settlement, or more accurately, what was left of one. What had once been a quaint village much like Kaede’s was now a smoldering ruin. Most of the huts had burned down to cinders, charred skeletons of wood marking the places where structures had previously stood. More disturbing than the devastated buildings was the sight of the villagers’ bodies, and the smell of burnt flesh. The smart thing to do would be to move on, to get as far away from here as possible in case the perpetrators returned. But she couldn’t do that, not until she’d checked for survivors. If anyone had survived the raid, they were probably in dire need of assistance, and it was not in her nature to ignore those in need.
After carefully checking to make sure the coast was clear, she crept quietly into the village. Her adventures in the feudal era had left her somewhat desensitized to death, so inspecting the bodies didn’t bother her very much. She would have time later to ruminate on whether or not that was a good thing. For now, she said a brief prayer over each corpse and moved on. She couldn’t spare the energy required to do anything more. If she reunited with her friends then perhaps the whole group could return and bury the bodies. They had certainly done that before. But for now the villagers would have to lie where they fell. Once she had checked for survivors, she would see if anything edible had survived the fire, and then get the hell out of here.
She didn’t come across another living soul until she reached the outskirts of the village, on the side facing the valley. A man lay in the street on his back, the dirt around him darkened with his blood. He still clutched a hunter’s bow in his hand, and had a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. It was not the first evidence she had seen of the villagers’ futile attempts to defend themselves, but it was still a poignant scene. This man perished trying to protect those who were precious to him, but there was no glory in his sacrifice. Everyone had died anyway.
Or perhaps not. A woman lay sprawled on her back nearby, also bleeding from severe wounds, a spear lying across her torso. Kagome actually said a prayer over her body, but caught the subtle signs of her breathing in her peripheral vision as she turned away. It was only the more obvious motion of the spear point which allowed her to see the incredibly shallow rise of her chest. She immediately knelt by the woman’s side and attempted to rouse her. The woman opened her eyes after a moment, her unfocused gaze staring up at the sky.
“Mi…” she whispered. “Mi…”
“Mizu?” Kagome finished. “You want water?”
The woman slipped into unconsciousness before responding, but Kagome immediately stood and jogged down to the river, picking up a small bowl along the way. She wasn’t going to ignore a final request from someone who was clearly dying. If the water helped to ease her passing, even a little, then in Kagome’s mind it was well worth the effort. Unfortunately, by the time she returned, what little life remained in the woman had already departed. Sighing sadly, she said a prayer over the body and moved on.
Next she came to a hut which was only partially destroyed; some quirk of wind or blaze had put out the fire before it fully consumed the structure. Most of three walls and the roof had collapsed inward, leaving a pile of charred timber, out of which stuck a small human hand. Kagome closed her eyes for a moment, her sorrow deepening. She wondered if the woman had really been asking for water, after all. Perhaps this was her child, and his or her name began with the syllable ‘mi.’ It seemed like a despairingly strong possibility. The man in the street was probably the father. Hopefully the little family would be reunited in the afterlife.
Kagome began to pray over the pile of rubble covering the body, and nearly jumped a meter in the air when the small hand twitched suddenly. As she watched, it moved again, with definite intent this time. That was all the encouragement she needed to kneel in the ruins of the hut and begin pulling aside debris. What she found underneath the burnt wood sent a stabbing pain through her chest.
It was a little boy, about Souta’s age. He could probably have passed for her brother’s second or third cousin, except for the severe burns marring one side of his face. He stared at her with his one good eye, the mahogany orb darkened with agony. Kagome didn’t need medical training to comprehend the truth. This boy wasn’t going to make it. His body was too broken, too badly burned. It was a miracle that he still clung to life. He tried to speak, but only ended up wheezing and coughing up blood. Kagome clasped her hand in his, seeking to offer whatever comfort she could, but he shook his head so she let him go. She soon discovered why he had rejected her touch. He weakly raised his hand and pointed in the direction where his mother lay.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Kagome told him, blinking back tears. “But she…didn’t make it.”
Again he shook his head, his lips moving with purpose. When Kagome failed to read them the first time, he repeated the message, again pointing toward his mother’s body. It took a third attempt before she finally interpreted the silent plea correctly.
“You want the spear?”
He nodded, and Kagome frowned in confusion. Why would he— She gasped, suddenly comprehending why he desired the spear, and what he was asking her to do. Every fiber of her being cried out, demanding that she refuse. How could she help a child commit suicide? It went against everything she stood for. On the other hand, how could she allow him to continue to suffer, when there was no hope that he would survive his wounds? Didn’t he have a right to choose death? Earlier she had reflected that it was a miracle that he still lived. Perhaps it was more of a curse than a miracle. If she was in his situation, lying mortally wounded next to the bodies of everyone who loved her, would she want to continue clinging to life? Or would she ask an unlucky passerby to help her end it all?
As she knelt there paralyzed, grappling with this intensely emotional dilemma, Kagome felt the boy’s small hand come to rest atop her own. His skin was shockingly cold to the touch, and his expression was desperate, pleading.
“Please,” he rasped, immediately descending into a coughing fit which brutally wracked his small form. Kagome sobbed, knowing that no matter what it did to her, she couldn’t let this child suffer any longer. She stood on shaking legs, and retrieved the spear. Then she held it over him, the sharp metal point positioned directly above his neck. It was difficult to keep the weapon steady due to her trembling. She had been hoping that the boy would be able to make the final thrust if she held the shaft upright for him, but he was too weak to raise his arm high enough. His eyes pleaded with her once more, begging her to end his pain. Again, every fiber of her being screamed in protest. But she had to do this. She couldn’t let this poor boy suffer any longer. She desperately wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, but if she did, she might err with her aim and fail to inflict a mortal wound, thereby causing him even more pain. And that was something she would never allow herself to do.
Instincts of self-preservation made one final attempt, but she refused to change her mind. But as she took a shuddering breath and began a grim mental countdown, she had to wonder how much of her sanity this act of mercy would cost her.
Three…two…one…
With a cry which was half sob and half wail, she thrust the spear. The boy’s eyes widened in shock, as though he hadn’t known what to expect. But the gratitude in his expression never wavered, even as he gurgled blood and his body spasmed weakly in its final throes. It was over quickly. The boy’s head lolled to the side, and his body finally stilled.
Kagome didn’t remember collapsing to the ground. She didn’t remember curling into the fetal position, or being struck lightly by the shaft of the spear as it fell, still embedded in the boy’s neck. When she regained awareness of herself, in what could have been minutes or hours later, all she knew was that she had been crying bitterly. She seemed to recall rejecting a strong temptation to continue lying in the ruins of that hut, and never rise again. The idea seemed ludicrous now. She had too much to live for. Sango and Miroku could never live happily together until Naraku was slain and the jewel banished from this world, and Inuyasha would never find peace. Even if this experience left her permanently scarred, it didn’t change her responsibility to help her friends finally achieve their own dreams, or lessen the love she held for them.
So she got up, rising from the ashes of what had once been a young family’s home. She spared a final glance at the boy, said a prayer over his body, and turned to return to the river. She did not get far.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Those words had her spinning around to face the valley, where a grizzled man stood leering at her with a lascivious expression. He wore tattered armour and held a dull sword in his right hand. Despite his unkempt appearance, Kagome wasn’t sure she could outrun him to the river. But given his obvious intentions for her, she was certainly going to try. Again, she didn’t make it far. The sight of another man standing in the street behind her, and a third off to the other side, stilled her in her tracks. They surrounded her in a rough circle, all smirking and ogling her openly. She spun back to face the first man as he spoke again.
“Nowhere to run, girl. You might as well give up now. It’ll go better for you that way.”
He advanced menacingly toward her, and she backed away out of reflex until her heel caught on something unexpectedly and she fell onto her backside, unwittingly giving the bandit quite a show.
“Phew!” he exclaimed with a snicker. “That sure is a short kimono. I’m starting to think that you might actually be looking forward to this.”
Fighting off panic, Kagome started to rise, but froze as she glimpsed the object which had tripped her. It was the arm of the father whom she had seen lying in the street earlier. His hand still clutched his hunting bow, which she immediately claimed. Before the sniggering bandits could react, she had the quiver of arrows strapped to her back and a projectile drawn and aimed squarely at the talkative one’s chest. His mirth faded quickly, though his smirk did not disappear. Kagome waited until they were finished with another round of vulgar comments, then spoke in as firm a voice as she could muster
“Back off!”
“Or what?” the leader challenged. “You probably couldn’t hit water if you were standing on a beach.”
“I’ll k-kill you if you come any closer,” she threatened, cursing herself for her stutter. At this point, she honestly wasn’t sure if she was bluffing or not. She didn’t want to kill again, today or ever. Could she bring herself to do it, even in self-defense?
The bandit sneered. “Well, if you think you can k-kill me, then go right ahead. Just don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you now.”
He stepped forward. Kagome loosed her arrow. The bandit’s eyes flew wide in shock at the unexpectedly straight path of the projectile. After a futile effort to block the arrow with his sword, he screamed in pain and sank to his knees as it embedded itself firmly in his thigh. Kagome didn’t know if it was a mistake to lower her aim at the last possible instant to inflict a non-lethal wound, and she didn’t have time to question it now. She sprinted past the downed man, his two cohorts in hot pursuit.
This was not good. As she feared, the men were gaining on her quickly, courtesy of their longer legs and the fact that they probably hadn’t gone almost forty-eight hours without food. She was never going to make it to the river. One of them made a grab for her, but she twisted away from his grasp. This nearly send her careening into the other bandit, who reached out and whacked her hard with the scabbard of his sword. She toppled to the ground, rolling over once, her survival instincts switching from flight back to fight in an instant. She came up with an arrow in hand, nocked it and drew back the bowstring in a single fluid motion. There was no time to aim or think, only to react. Her vision was entirely consumed by the sight of the nearest man bearing down on her. She fired.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. The bandit’s expression shifted to one of bemusement, as though he could not understand the sensations running through his body. His left eye blinked once, rapidly becoming unfocused. His right eye did nothing, having been nearly destroyed by the arrow which had passed through it and embedded itself in his brain. He seemed to lose all strength in his muscles, his coordinated and efficient sprint abruptly terminating as he collapsed face first into the dirt. He did not rise. The shaft of the arrow caught on the ground, resulting in his head being tilted backward and turned to the side. Thus, Kagome was presented with a perfect view of his face, the face of the man whom she had just murdered. She could not take her eyes off of it.
At least, not until another body slammed into hers, bearing her to the ground. She lay on her back, still too stunned to react, as a pair of hands clasped around her neck, cutting off her airway. Her gaze came to rest on the owner of those hands, his face twisted into a silent snarl. Gone was the humor, the lust; all that remained was pure rage. Perhaps the man she had killed was a relative, she reflected, or at the very least a very close friend. It didn’t matter now. It would be so easy to surrender, to simply let go. She was tempted again, as the face of the dead man swam before her mind’s eye. Logic said that she had killed in self-defense, but logic held no sway over the swirl of emotions ravaging her mind.
It took her longer this time, to muster her resolve. The battle to rediscover her will to live was more arduous than before, but she eventually prevailed all the same. Will to live, by itself, however, was not enough. Without the physical strength to convert it to reality, will was meaningless. And her lungs were already beginning to burn from lack of oxygen.
Her hands shot up, clawing at the face of her assailant. But his arms were longer than hers, and he repositioned his knees to pin her shoulders to keep her fingernails at bay. Kagome barely managed to suck in a desperate gasp of air during his brief moment of distraction, but then he redoubled the pressure on her neck. She continued to struggle, her resistance weakening as her body’s need for oxygen spiraled to critical levels. Finally, as her vision swam and blackness began to seep into her consciousness, she was forced to confront cold reality. No matter how badly she wanted to live, she simply did not possess the physical strength to throw this man off of her. He outweighed her by too much pure muscle, and held a dominant position above her. She was going to die.
Salvation arrived as she was in the middle of contemplating her final regrets. The pressure on her throat suddenly vanished, replaced by a spray of liquid which soaked her to the skin. Some of the metallic fluid fell into her mouth as she gasped for air, but that did not stop her from inhaling a massive lungful. Her abused throat throbbed in pain, but oxygen was too sweet an elixir not to savor again and again. Some sodden objects collapsed against both of her sides, but she was initially too busy bingeing on air to care what they were. She did, however, snap back to full awareness upon hearing a shout from somewhere in the distance.
“No! Stay back you monster!” The voice was masculine, though the tone was raised by absolute terror to the point of cracking. The scream which followed was abruptly silenced by the gruesomely wet sounds of flesh being torn asunder. Kagome’s relief returned to fear in an instant. Whatever ‘monster’ had dispatched her immediate assailant, leaving her covered in what she could only assume were his blood and body parts, it had also hunted down and executed the man she shot in the leg earlier. And now she and the monster were alone. With dread settling in her gut, she sat up slowly and opened her eyes.
The monster was a familiar terror. He stalked toward her, fangs bared, his claws dripping with blood. But what scared her the most was the absolute lack of any sense of recognition in his scarlet orbs. She could detect no sign of higher intelligence; this was a monster, operating solely on his baser instincts. He would kill for the sake of killing, until he could kill no more. Still, she had to try to reach him.
“Inuyasha, it’s me, Kagome.”
No response.
“Inuyasha, please! Don’t you recognize me?”
The monster raised his claws, cracking his knuckles in preparation for another strike, as his lips curved upward into a joyful sneer. Kagome resisted the urge to flee for her life. It would do her no good; there had to be another way to stop him. Use the bow. Save yourself. She wasn’t sure if that voice came from within or without, but her survival instincts certainly agreed. She quickly rearmed herself, drew an arrow and took aim. The monster continued his advance undeterred.
Kagome hesitated then, an odd thought occurring to her. In her mind, she kept referring to this youkai as ‘the monster.’ But it wasn’t just a monster, it was Inuyasha. And could she really shoot Inuyasha in order to save her own life? That is not Inuyasha. Inuyasha is gone. He can never come back. If that was true, then logically she should shoot him. The hanyou whom she had fallen in love with would want her to do just that, if the alternative was him slaughtering her in cold blood. But she couldn’t be certain that her Inuyasha truly was beyond reach, no matter how sure the voice in her head sounded. Still, there was no way for her to avoid choosing between the two extremes. Her pulse quickened with each menacing step, her nerves flaring uncontrollably. Soon her arms were shaking so badly that she could no longer be certain that the arrow would fly where she aimed it. She might aim for his leg and accidentally strike his heart. Nothing aside from a lethal shot was likely to stop him at any rate.
So this really was a story of two extremes, with nothing in between. One choice led to Inuyasha’s death, the other to her own. Because barring what seemed like the most impossible of miracles, the youkai before her was not going to suddenly recognize her. It truly did appear that he had lost all of his humanity, the dire warnings concerning his full-youkai transformations having finally come to pass.
Kagome had to wonder just how strong her will to live truly was. It surged within her, powerful and convincing, loosening her hold on the drawn arrow. Only her rebellious heart prevented the projectile’s release. The monster launched himself into a dead sprint, letting loose a savage growl. He would be upon her in less than a second. She was out of time. Shoot him! Shoot him now!
The bow and arrow clattered harmlessly to the ground beside her. With no hope left to her, but at peace with her decision, Kagome closed her eyes and waited for the final blow to fall.
It never came. No claws cut into her flesh, and the only sound which greeted her ears was that of her own heavy breathing. Eventually she gathered up the courage to open her eyes and scan her surroundings. She was alone.
Choked laughter burst uncontrollably from her throat, the relieved mirth of a woman who only moments prior had been completely certain of impending death. But Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen. The only sign that he had been here at all were the dismembered corpses of his victims. The realization that one of said victims was lying on top of her in still-bleeding pieces caused the bile to rise in Kagome’s throat, but she managed to prevent herself from vomiting, in large part because there was nothing in her stomach to purge. Scrambling away from the corpse did nothing to remove the blood which covered her entire front, from forehead to toes. Cleaning herself was a top priority, for practical as well as psychological reasons. After that, she would try to figure out where Inuyasha had disappeared to, and why he hadn’t killed her. She tried not to get her hopes up, but the fact that she was still alive had to mean something, right?
She stretched out her spiritual senses and was immediately confronted with an intensely disquieting sensation. It was similar to the feeling of wrongness which she experienced in the cave two evenings prior, she realized. This was not the first time since then that she had accessed her spiritual energy—she had taken to periodically scanning for youkai auras during her journey along the riverbank—but it was the first time she had encountered anything like this. It was almost as though a veil had been lifted from her eyes, and she could see things much more clearly. But as before, she couldn’t identify the strange feeling or truly comprehend the reason behind it. It was still a mystery, one she sensed that she would need to solve in order to find Inuyasha and get them both out of this mess.
But first, she headed down to the river and began to scrub the blood off of her exposed skin. Her clothes were probably a lost cause, and she didn’t want to strip in order to wash them anyway. Perhaps she could find something wearable in the village. As she washed her legs, she continued to ruminate upon her ever-changing situation. It was humorous, in a dark sort of way. Up until now, she had been counting on her friends to come to her rescue. But it was now abundantly clear that Inuyasha was not capable of rescuing anyone, and she didn’t want to think about what might have happened to the rest of their companions. She would worry, of course, but she had to bury those concerns in order to ensure her own survival and help Inuyasha. She could only hope that he was not beyond saving.
Satisfied with her handiwork and feeling much better for it, Kagome stood and focused her spiritual energy once more. She stretched her senses as far as she could, searching for any trace of Inuyasha’s aura. Unfortunately her range was not that far, and she could detect no sign of his presence. Her concentration faltered abruptly as something new brushed against her consciousness. A sudden compulsion gripped her, to move across the valley as quickly as possible. Her nerves flared, the physical manifestation of the overpowering sense of urgency coursing through her. And unlike the disembodied voice she had heard earlier, she could tell that this instinct came from within.
As she ran across the plain, the world around her seemed to shift before her eyes. The trees and mountains in the distance appeared to blur in and out of focus, as though she was under the influence of alcohol. Somehow she knew that the cause of the odd visual display had nothing to do with her physical condition, however. What did it mean? Her brain continued to work toward an answer, but all thoughts of solving that mystery dissipated when she sensed Inuyasha’s aura up ahead. Her immense relief that he felt like a hanyou again was dampened by the way his aura flickered with distress. Inuyasha was in deep trouble.
Ignoring the stitch in her side, Kagome quickened her pace, sprinting across the plain as fast as her legs could carry her.