InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Abandoned Home ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Author's Notes: I apologize for the looooong wait. I'm terribly sorry! I just didn't have the inspiration for it anymore. Well, now I have some back...So I'll start writing again. This fanfic and my others will soon be updated. Now though, I'm rather unsatisfied with my writing so, I'll probably redo the chapters if I feel like it.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. DUH!

 

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Abandoned Home - Chapter 3

 

By clow angel

 

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The next morning, the inhabitants of the village found themselves buried under towers of flames. The villagers rushed to put the fires out. The humans went to a nearby lake to get water while the youkai who possessed water abilities would try and save as much as possible with their abilities. The other youkai would bring water as well. The entire village was in an uproar. Confusion, death, and other negative energies filled the air thickly.

 

Kagome, being the village miko was trying her best to keep the fire from spreading by creating a kekkai. It would temporarily hold the fire from spreading further. Sesshoumaru, not particularly caring about the welfare of the people, decided to sit it out. Perhaps he can leave during all this confusion without being noticed. However, his pride would not allow it. He warred with himself. Should he help the ones who saved him? Or let them perish? After all, all creatures were bound to die one day be it earlier or later. It did not matter. However, his small percent of goodness won out and he got up to help put out the fire.

 

However, in the end, everyone's efforts came to nothing. Almost the entire village was burned down to the ground. There were many casualties as well. Over a dozen villagers have been killed within the raging flames. It was so early, just before dawn, that the onslaught of fire caught many off guard. It cost them their lives. The ones who have survived vowed to rebuild the village.

 

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru found something to be quite odd. Raging flames burned down his home as well. Was someone trying to get rid of him? Going so far as to kill all those who helped him as well? He did not know. He glanced at the passing villagers who were tending to the injured, deep in thought. Did someone hold a grudge against the Taisho name? Whoever it was will die a painfully slow death. He would make sure of it.

 

For once in Kagome's life, she was terrified. Where was she to go now? Her only home had burned down. Her azure eyes were brimming with unshed tears as she looked sorrowfully at the remains of her once cheerful village. “What am I to do…?” she whispered as she dropped to her knees, hugging herself tightly, fists clenched tightly onto her miko robes.

 

“Miko.”

 

Kagome looked up and found herself lost in golden eyes. “Na-nani…?”

 

“I am leaving.” With that said, Sesshoumaru turned to leave, only to be stopped by Kagome's hands clinging to his sleeve. He paused and looked down at the teary-eyed miko.

 

“Take me with you,” she pleaded. She had deduced the people who set her village on fire were one and the same as those who burned down the Taisho castle.

 

“No.”

 

“Onegai!” The azure-eyed priestess was almost reduced to sobs again. “I have a hunch those who tried to kill us today were the ones after you as well! I must avenge the village!”

 

Sesshoumaru stood, staring stoically down at the pleading young woman. He warred with himself. Should he take her with him? Would she be a burden? He did understand one's need for revenge as he wanted to avenge his family name as well, but that was it. It was the name he wanted to bring back. He cared not for his `family'. She wanted to avenge her people, her village. He didn't really understand why though. The dead remained dead. They wouldn't know whether they've been avenged or not.

 

Kagome didn't know what was going through the youkai's mind. However, she did hope he'd allow her to join him. Having a youkai companion on a journey had its good points. He had a sensitive nose, good hearing, and whatever his abilities were. As for her, she had her miko abilities of creating kekkai, shooting purifying arrows, amongst other things. And…she has never traveled alone before. Even though the stoic youkai before her rarely spoke, he was still company, right?

 

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru was still thinking. `Would she be a burden?' His answer was a maybe. After all, she was a miko and priestesses had their own unique powers, but having both youkai and miko traveling together was odd. Humans and youkai mingling was weird, but a priestess and youkai together was even weirder. It was simply not normal. However, this village consisted of both and they lived together quite well. To hell with that. Like he ever cared what others thought of him before. The only burden would be traveling at a slower pace, a lot slower pace. He could simply fly at several different speeds to reach a destination depending on urgency. He did not have to walk, but if he had to he would. Or, he could just fly with the miko. If she falls, she dies. Simple.

 

Looking down at the miko whose tears were now slowing, he stiffly nodded before turning once again and heading towards the entrance of the village. “I shall be waiting.”

 

Kagome smiled in relief.

 

“Kagome-chan!” Sango called. “Daijoubu ka?”

 

“Daijoubu. Watashi wa daijoubu desu,” Kagome replied with a soft smile. “I'm leaving. I need to avenge the village, Sango-chan.”

 

“…You're leaving? Now? By yourself? You've never been alone before!” Sango protested.

 

“Iie, demo daijoubu. Sesshoumaru will be with me.”

 

“The youkai we rescued? Oh, then I'm a little more at ease,” Sango smiled with relief. “Demo, I still don't really trust him. Take Kirara with you. She'll be of use.”

 

“Nani? But you've always had Kirara with you. I can't simply take her. You'll be left alone.”

 

“It's okay. I have Houshi-sama to watch my back.”

 

“You mean to watch your backside.”

 

Sango turned a ripe tomato red. “Kagome-chan!”

 

“Joudan, joudan!” Kagome giggled.

 

The taijiya coughed. “Kirara!” Sango called. Seconds later, the fire cat appeared from above, landing besides the demon slayer.

 

“Kirara, I want you to go with Kagome. She's leaving the village to avenge the ones who passed today. I don't want her to be alone with that stoic youkai.” Sango patted the cat's large head. “Will you go?”

 

The large cat stepped up to Kagome and butted her head against the miko's stomach.

 

“Thank you Kirara. Take care of Kagome-chan for us.” Sango turned and left but not without a final pat on her pet cat's head.

 

“You can turn back to your smaller self now. I need to go packing.”

 

In a burst of fire, giant Kirara turned into a small kitten-sized cat that leapt onto Kagome's shoulder, finding it a comfortable seat.

Groaning, Kagome slumped to the ground, completely exhausted. She had never walked so much in her life and the damn expressionless man she was traveling with didn't seem to know or should she say care, how tired she was.

 

“Mouuu… tsukareta!”

 

Sesshoumaru paused in his step and turned his silver head slightly to watch the miko out of the corner of his eye. He knew this would happen… Were humans really this much weaker? Mentally sighing, he looked up into the sky and found the sun was close to setting and the sky was littered with oranges and reds.

 

“We will camp here.”

 

“Thank kami-sama! My legs were about to fall off!” she sighed in relief as she collapsed onto the ground, grateful for finally being able to get some rest.

 

Sesshoumaru stared at the human with a raised brow. This human and exaggerations...

 

Kirara looked up at the human sympathetically. She would've offered her a ride if the miko hadn't been so stubbornly muttering about how she can walk just as much as the youkai in front of her could.

 

“I'll go gather firewood then!” Kagome smiled and got up to look for dry branches and some leaves.

 

Sesshoumaru disappeared into the forest. By the time he came back, a fire was already roaring with the miko sitting in front of it with a pot of water. He tossed the now dead and skinned rabbits over to the miko and watched as she skewered them with a stick and began roasting them.

 

The little cat youkai was pacing in front of the fire and mewling. Finally Kagome sighed and rubbed the kitty's ears. “Kirara, you can go hunt now. Be back in one piece though.”

 

In a burst of flames, mini Kirara was now `Sabertooth' Kirara. The neko youkai immediately leapt into the air and flew off to who-knows-where.

 

“Human.”

 

Kagome's eye twitched. “My name is Kagome.”

 

The dog demon completely ignored her, opting to continue what he was going to say. “We must find a lead. I do not wish to traipse around nihon with no destination in mind.”

 

“That, I understand. I do not wish to waste time either. However, how are we going to find leads?”

 

Sesshoumaru took a seat across from her, facing the blazing flames. “We will be going to my home's ruins.”

 

“Good idea. Perhaps we can find some clues. Even a claw mark will do.”

 

The trio had some rest that night and headed for Sesshoumaru's estates early in the morning only an hour so after sunrise. This time, Kagome took a ride on Kirara to save time and our favorite silver-haired bishounen took a ride on his funky pink-red cloud.

 

Soon, they were scrambling through the burned castle looking for clues, each off in a different direction to hasten the search.

 

“Yatta! I found something!” Kagome's happy cry of surprise rang through the charred walls.

 

Sesshoumaru was by her kneeling form in seconds.

 

“Mite!” She showed him a wooden doll with a strip of white paper on it.

 

“…” Sesshoumaru took the wooden figure from the miko's outstretched hands and examined it carefully with amber eyes. “A puppet.”

 

“A puppet?” Kagome stood and examined the small thing in Sesshoumaru's hand, eyes on the strip of paper. “I see. So someone was controlling puppets to do their work for them which means the perpetrator was most likely not present during the attack.” She recognized the spell. She had studied it when younger as a miko-in-training. It allowed them to control a shadow of themselves from quite a distant if they were strong enough to hold onto that power. Therefore, whoever had attacked both Sesshoumaru's home and her village must be a powerful foe to control several puppets at once, judging by the scattered broken dolls. She was sure the dog demon's family was no pushover judging by his power alone.

 

And yet, the enemy had succeeded in destroying the home along with most of the family. Yes, most. She was sure there was a few survivors out there somewhere. Something was wrong with the picture. How could such a powerful family have fallen so easily? It was unsettling. Something was not right.

 

“—man.”

 

“Human,” Sesshoumaru repeated a little more loudly, annoyed. He had called the miko three times already.

 

Kagome, deep in thought, hadn't heard him at all. “Huh? Oh, sorry. I just remembered the spell.”

 

Sesshoumaru waited for her to continue.

 

“As you mentioned, it's a puppet. However, it's unique. In most cases, the puppet is like a berserker, destroying everything in its path with just one goal in mind because either the spell is incomplete or the puppeteer is a weak-willed or is just plain weak. However, in this case, judging by the sheer number of destroyed dolls, I can safely say our enemy isn't just any enemy. He must be powerful to have executed his plan with stealth. His puppets were obviously not mindless zombies. He had to have known every single detail in order to pull this off.” Kagome paused to let the dog demon let it all sink in.

 

“And added to that, judging by your sense of smell, you can probably tell the true enemy was nowhere near here.”

 

“Correct, miko. The scent on these wooden dolls is at least seventeen days old.” Sesshoumaru had taken in the information and was now going through a list of potential enemies that had a grudge against his house. He had come up with no one that was powerful enough to control that many beings at once.

 

“From your calculations, that means the enemy must be several days away from here. For someone to control such a large amount of bodies, he must be powerful. We're not dealing with a mindless idiot.”

 

Sesshoumaru said not a word for a long minute. “He will die.”

 

Kagome sweatdropped, and stared at the now growling demon before her. “Ano, Sesshoumaru, perhaps we should move on…?”

 

Nodding, Sesshoumaru looked down at the broken wooden doll in his hand before crushing it with his fist and letting the splinters of wood fall from his fingers and onto the sandy ground. Turning, he stepped over several fallen beams and disappeared from sight.

 

Kirara who had just returned stared after the proud dog demon with confusion before turning to her temporary mistress.

 

“Uh… Well, time to go, Kirara.”

 

Kirara growled before bursting into flames and reappearing in her kitten form. Hopping onto Kagome's shoulder, the two scrambled to follow the stoic dog demon who seemed to be ignoring their existence, having set an extremely fast pace.

 

“Sesshoumaru, wait up!” Kagome called after him while struggling to keep up with the dog demon's long strides. “Where are we going?”

 

Stopping suddenly, he turned to face the girl, almost causing her to run into him. “Quiet.”

 

Kagome huffed. “Well, excuse me! I've been only trying to help. No need to give me such an attitude!”

 

Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to claw the girl's head off. Her voice was grating on his nerves. “We are paying a visit to my half brother.”

 

Several dozen miles away, a certain hanyou sneezed.

 

Kagome blinked. “You have a brother?” she blurted out, surprised.

 

“Half brother,” he corrected, growling low in his throat.

 

“Fine, half brother,” she repeated after him. “And why are we going to visit him?”

 

“…”

 

“Fine! Don't answer!” She huffed once more, stomping off ahead of him in the direction he was previously going.

 

The duo and a fire cat traveled until sunset once more. Unbeknownst to them, someone was watching their every move, shadowing their every step.

Author's Notes: Okay, this was an extremely short chapter. For that, I apologize. I did want to make it longer, but that would mean I'd be heading into the next part. And it doesn't take a genius to figure out who the enemy is.

 

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And I'm killing my other plan. Inuyasha will be alive. Originally, I planned for Inuyasha to have died, but it seems he'll be more useful to me alive.