InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Assigned Target ❯ Location ( Chapter 2 )

Author's Note: Many, many thanks to Fenikkusuken, who is not only the best beta in the world, but a general lovely person and the reason I'm writing these oneshots!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the assorted characters, storylines or IP.

 

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The old man rotated his shoulders and muttered. Unused to this form, he had been sitting awkwardly, and his back and neck ached. He missed his extra arms, and these fangled western chairs and desks were plainly built as torture devices.

 

Gods know how the Master used to manage at his desk

 

The books were sprawled invitingly over the wide wooden surface, open and tempting, but the Romanised writing he'd painfully learnt kept dissolving into meaningless scrawl unless he concentrated. He tried to keep focused, knowing that he only had a little time. It had taken years of painstaking research to find this place, and months of nerve-wracking persuasion and pleading to allow the Keepers to let him access the library for one afternoon. He considered the bent heads of the students and the sounds of scribbling. The Keepers were, quite rightly, extremely protective. Even the more basic knowledge in this library would cause the most restrained demon to go on a killing spree. In the Wars, many of the more feudal-minded demons had an unspoken agreement; if there were human centres of advanced learning, hostilities were halted until the place was destroyed. Human experts had rapidly learnt to hide their learning or be chained to a pile of their own research and burnt alive.

 

Myoga grimaced. He loved learning, books and innovation, and had hated the wilful destruction, even for his own race's safety. Another reason why he was regarded so suspiciously by the other demons, and pointedly ignored once the Inu-no-Taisho died; but that was yet another reason why the Taisho had trusted him so much.

 

And speaking of ignoring...

 

The flea demon hovered between relief and bitterness that his own power levels were so low that they had allowed the concealment charm to not only change his appearance but blanket his jyaki completely, something generally deemed impossible. Then again, his Lord must have anticipated this situation in the first place, since he'd specifically left the strange black pearl charm, not to mention the cryptic instructions, in Myoga's rooms over ten years ago and undiscovered until after his death.

 

Still, out of a long habit of extreme precaution and an aversion to conflict, Myoga had purposely provoked one of the local weasel youkai on his way here and then made himself scarce. The resultant temper tantrum half an hour later had ensured that anyone with any spiritual power was out in the forest after that disturbance, rather than sitting opposite an old human male.

 

He stretched his one pair of arms above his head and cricked his neck, flexing spindly legs, before going back to his reading. He clutched the pen awkwardly, wishing he could use a proper ink brush and knowing it would be a death knell here.

 

Why did he want me to look at this?

 

He turned the page, finding the new reading exhausting, and envying the human ability to seemingly absorb knowledge like a sponge. It was a book of advanced security methods. Humans had been experimenting with them before the Wars really kicked in and given them far higher priorities than research, such as staying alive. There were voice, iris, fingerprint… even DNA recognition.

 

As he looked at recognition modules, something seemed strangely familiar. He squinted at it, eventually turning the book around 90 degrees to examine the diagram, but nothing made any sense. Myoga faithfully copied the circuitry, but felt uncomfortable as if he was missing the point somehow. He continued reading as it described the special materials needed to build the system; materials that could no longer be created. His non-existent antenna waved in surprise.

 

Those are the very materials that had been used in the Mausoleum, the Inu no Taisho's tomb!

 

Elated, he flicked back to the circuitry diagram. Again, nothing was familiar, although he re-read the entire section. His excitement ebbed, and his mind wandered back to the Mausoleum.

 

It hadn't always been intended for a tomb; originally it had been the Inu-no-Taisho's favourite Summer House, where he and Izoyai used to spend time before the hanyou was born, away from the jibes and sneers of the Court. He had personally commissioned it and had a hand in the design, using some of the recent human innovations because the mindset that "anything human is bad" had not become entrenched at that point. He even used human workers and a human architect, waving away the concerns of the other youkai, explaining breezily that he wouldn't have even low level demons doing menial work when there were humans around. Despite everyone's misgivings, it had been a marvel. Beautiful, expertly crafted and sturdy; filled with light on the top level where it was mostly glass in a way no youkai could replicate, and a lower level filled with carved pillars and paintings. If it hadn't been a human woman in there, you wouldn't have been able to keep the youkai court females out.

 

He smiled as he remembered his Lord taking the tiny newly-born hanyou baby there even before he was named. He'd held him up to show him the paintings, making him look straight at the black carved pillars with the small embedded orbs and jewels that represented the stars and the planets, the light flashing across the child's face...

 

Myoga's brain rolled into alarmed awareness. His hand rested on the phrase "as with all electronics, the iris recognition circuit must be closed. Any gap within the loop will result in a non-operational failure".

 

I know where the Tetsusaigsa is.

 

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