InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Because of Tomomi ❯ Daybreak ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or the like. This story is for my own entertainment. (Well. You can be entertained by it too, I suppose.)

A/N: Soooo yeah, I have no excuse. I died. It took a while to find a Phoenix Down in this day and age.

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Because of Tomomi

Chapter Eight

Daybreak

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“Hey,” InuYasha said, giving Ryouta a rough shake. The always-human boy groaned as he woke up, rubbing his eyes. Ryouta had dozed of leaning against a wall. Tomomi was still asleep, her head pillowed on his outstretched legs. One of his hands rested on her head, as he's been stroking her hair while she slept. “Take her home,” InuYasha said, nodding to the girl.

“Home…?” Ryouta asked, still half-asleep. “Oh!” he flustered, connecting the dots. “Yes, of course. Ah, but could you help me--“ InuYasha nodded before Ryouta had finished speaking, lifting Tomomi enough for the young man to stand, then helped him situate Tomomi on his back. Tomomi scrunched up her face and groaned, but otherwise gave no sign of waking. As Ryouta made for the door, he realized that Sango had left already. How long ago? How long had he been asleep?

InuYasha lifted the matting of the door to one side for Ryouta as he passed, but the young man hesitated halfway through the doorway.

“InuYasha-sama…” he said, worrying over his words. “I… for earlier. I'm sorry. I was out of line and upset about my sister.”

“Feh,” InuYasha huffed. Ryouta was too ashamed to look at the man's face. “People have done worse things because of their siblings,” he said at length. Still uncertain, Ryouta nodded and started the walk home.

Left alone, the hanyou-turned-human surveyed the empty hut. In the midnight dark, the small fire was just enough to see by, casting deep shadows into the corners of the small dwelling. Light barely touched Kaede's workbench, illuminating only the polished urns and jars. The small window cut an opening for the night, which seemed to draw away all the fire's warmth. InuYasha's eyes fell to Kagome's futon, where there were still blankets bunched up as a pillow. It was just last night that he'd shared a bed with Kagome, and suddenly he felt like she was lost to him forever.

He couldn't do that again.

In the three years she was gone, the village changed around him, yet he remained unchanging, un-aging, untouched without Kagome. It was all he could do to stay near Sango and Miroku and Kaede, as if Kagome had merely stepped away and would be back in the usual “three days” after her “tests” and “exams.”

InuYasha had suspended his belief so completely, that every three days he'd go back to the Bone Eater's Well, as if to retrieve Kagome. It was there, every time, his heart broke anew. He'd stand at the well for hours on end, feeling lost and horribly alone.

Having Kagome around just made everything better. He could easily, especially tonight, compare the difference to his human and hanyou transformations. He was not blind or deaf as a human - but he might as well be. With Kagome around, the sun seemed brighter. The night seemed calmer. Nothing had changed with the world, but he felt... alive.

He stayed up all night, watching out the window until the first rays of sun were lightening the sky. Scarcely as the changes finished, he bolted furiously out of the hut, knocking the matting from the door frame and running as fast as his legs could carry him -- and it still wasn't fast enough to ease the cold grip fear had on his stomach.

~*~

The woman let out a broken cry, curled near the edge of Kagome's barrier. Tears slid freely down her face. Her body was a patchwork of scratches and scrapes, bruises on her wrists and hips and face in addition to the scars she already bore. The wounds the youkai carved into her torso had mostly stopped bleeding, making Kagome realize they weren't as bad as she had first thought. It wasn't anything that a few salves and bandages wouldn't see healed in a couple weeks. Kagome grimaced inwardly. If the youkai kept attacking her with such vigor, the wounds would become worse. The scabs had already broken open twice because of him.

Kagome's mouth was dry from the horror. “What's your name?” she asked the woman, her voice strangled.

“Tatsuya,” the woman replied between sobs. She pulled the tattered remains of a yukata around her shoulders. She leaned closer to Kagome's barrier, but jerked away when it shocked her. Kagome was nearly sick with herself. She was supposed to be a miko, the protector of the small village and the people that lived there. Yet here she was hiding behind a barrier with two frightened women, while the one that needed her the most sat on the outside, crying and rocking herself.

“Tatsuya-san,” Kagome repeated, “if there was any way I could help you, I would. I--”

“I know,” Tatsuya tearfully interrupted her. “I know. Don't risk the others for me. Please. I couldn't bear it.”

Heart broken, Kagome felt tears on her own cheeks. “Oh, Tatsuya-san... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

The delighted chittering of the strange rabbit youkai signaled the arrival of their leader. The tall humanoid creature sauntered into the cave, taking long, leisurely steps. Tatsuya whimpered as he crossed the cave to her, and lifted her off her feet.

“Good morning, my pet,” he grinned, all sharp teeth and red tongue. Tatsuya struggled to push him away, but he only pinned her against his body. Tatsuya let out a sound of anguish as he kissed her, forcing her mouth open and grabbing her ass with his other hand to grind against him. He suddenly shrank back, flinging her back toward Kagome's barrier with a curse. Tatsuya struggled to her hands and knees, spatting blood in the youkai's direction. The youkai touched his lip. His fingers came away slick and red. Tatsuya leaned against the barrier as she stood, ignoring the numbing shocks that ran through her arms. The youkai's glare was venomous.

Kagome realized with a jolt to her heart that Tatsuya was going to die. She closed her eyes as she became dizzy.

“Gods forgive me,” Kagome whispered, then held her breath.

The youkai lunged for Tatsuya, hungry for her death. Tatsuya barely managed to turn away from him, curling in on herself and bracing for the strike. The two village women inside the barrier screamed, one crying out wordlessly, the other simply protesting, “no!” There was a flash of light and a splash of red, then all was silent except for the sick, steady, drip, drip, drip, of blood.

Kagome opened her eyes, her heart like thunder in her ears. Her lungs burned for air, consumed by her adrenaline. Tatsuya was sprawled on the ground before her, heedless of her indecency. Her eyes were wide, unseeing. Miwa clutched Kagome's arm hard enough to bruise her. Rika crawled as close as she could to the fallen woman while staying within the barrier. Kagome's vision started to blur with unshed tears, then Tatsuya took a shuddering breath.

Next to her lay a misshapen hand, five times the size of a man's with only four huge fingers, each one tipped with a wicked, curved claw. The skin was black, wrinkled in places as if it was stretched too tight over the bones and muscles of the hand. Blood pooled in a dark, viscous puddle at the severed forearm. Kagome felt like she was going to be ill.

Several feet away, the humanoid youkai seethed and panted in rage and pain. He held one hand against the stump of his opposite arm, which bled freely. “You bitch,” he growled, scowling fit to curdle milk. His voice rose to a roar, making Kagome flinch, “You bitch! You filthy, underhanded cur!”

A few inches from where Tatsuya lie, relearning how to breathe, a second barrier shimmered in the firelight. Mustering all her will, Kagome forced her shoulders to relax and dropped the first barrier. Rika went to Tatsuya, removing her mo-bakama and wrapping it around the other woman's shoulders as she sat up.

Kagome defiantly met the youkai's eyes. She was weary from the exertion of power, but determined to protect the village women with her.

“Kagome-sama,” Tatsuya whispered as Rika ushered her closer. She dissolved into tears again, clinging desperately to Rika's arm.

~*~

InuYasha hurled an angry fist into another hapless tree. He'd lost the scent again. How the hell did this happen to him? He'd never had trouble tracking Kagome. Never. It was already mid-morning and he'd gone in three grandiose circles, leading back to the point she'd been captured. Finding himself at the mouth of the lake that fed the river, he roared his frustration to the sky. An answering cry of alarm came from across the river. InuYasha leaped over the river and crashed into the underbrush of the forest, pinpointing the origin of sound.

He knocked Mitsuo head over heels and sent him rolling. Dizzy, the man got to his hands and knees, shaking his head.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?!” InuYasha demanded, furious. Mitsuo flinched away, looking dazed. InuYasha picked him up by the neck of his clothes and set him on his feet. “What the hell,” he demanded again.

Mitsuo spouted random stutters and gibberish, staring through InuYasha like he wasn't there and grasping uselessly at the hanyou's wrist on his collar. Angry to all hell and back, InuYasha shook him. And shook him. And shook him. Even after Mitsuo was using real words and complete sentences again, InuYasha kept shaking him back and forth by the back of his collar. Kagome wasn't there to stop him, to tell him it was enough. Kagome wasn't there at all, and this maggoty little human had the gall to be wandering the fucking forest.

A voice caught his attention. “YouuuuuuuuuuKAI!!” Then there was a weight on his back and a girl was laughing in his ear. He lost his grip on Mitsuo. The human crumpled and was abruptly sick.

“Tomomi!” InuYasha snapped, grabbing her arm and flinging her off his back. He landed her on her feet rather roughly, and she made a sound of surprise. “Go home!” he roared in her face. Mitsuo was done purging his stomach. InuYasha jerked him to his feet, again by his collar. “Both of you!” He spun on his heel, set to jump back across the river and continue his search.

“Tatsuya!” Mitsuo blurted out, taking a few hesitant steps toward InuYasha. Baffled, InuYasha looked over his shoulder at the man. “Tatsuya went missing, too. Presumably... presumably by the same creature that took Kagome-sama.”

InuYasha spun around. “What?!” He took three angry strides back to Mitsuo. “You mean the fucker was here and you didn't tell me?!”

“I tried!” Mitsuo shouted back, regaining some color in his face. “You were trying to rattle my brains to mush at the time!”

“Show me,” InuYasha growled. Mitsuo stared at him. “Show me where he took her from, you stupid shitsack of a human!” Mitsuo, frowning, opened his mouth like he was going to say something. InuYasha shook him. “No!” he yelled. “Quit fucking talking! Who knows where they are or what that jackass is doing to them! Show me!” InuYasha shoved the young noble, who seemed to swallow his pride as he turned and walked the direction he'd come from.

InuYasha didn't care that Mitsuo was walking back to his own personal nightmare.

~*~

He hated the scent of his own blood. He hated the taste of it even worse. And that miserable, disfigured human girl bit his tongue until it bled. It was a mistake to throw her near the miko. He'd underestimated the wench.

She'd purified his arm off.

He circled the new barrier, shimmering like moonlight on water. The two useless women were crying again. He snarled at them to make them flinch. He took no joy in their torment. They were too weak to be enjoyable, and no use to him at all.

Resentment burned like bile in his stomach. The barrier was flawless, again. Standing behind the miko, where she couldn't see him, he flung himself at the barrier, savagely clawing at it.

Even in her blind spot, all he had to show for his efforts was a ragged manicure. He continued pacing.

He was a predator. These were his prey! Sitting right before him, each of them somehow stripped, and he couldn't touch them. So close to lifting his curse, so close he could taste it, and a miko's barrier stopped him. At least he'd made the miko flinch. It was the best he'd managed in the last few hours. The longer time stretched, the more determined the miko became.

He licked his lips, contemplating all the vile ways he could devour her. Wondering which would shame her the most. He'd gotten very good at shaming women, all for the sake of his sleeping mate. She'd understand, in time, what he'd done for her. All the women, all the blood, was to awaken her. He'd take all the evil, become evil, if she'd only open her eyes for him.

The drip, drip, drip, of his unhealing wound broke him from his reverie. Every drop of blood burned him, shaming him and marking him as a failure.

This fucking miko!

In the blink of an eye he tore upon the miko's wall, clawing, snarling, swearing, flailing his amputated arm to fling blood over the walls, the floor, the barrier, screaming filthy promises of copulation and indignity. The barrier hissed, burning away the stain of his blood. The human women screamed, covering their ears. Kagome, that hideous blight on his life, met his red eyes with a cool fury of her own, but there was fear there.

Fear! He had her. He leaned as close as he could to the barrier, sneering at her with every last one of his needle-sharp teeth, and he laughed. He held her gaze, practically foaming at the mouth like some mad dog, and laughed for all he was worth. Laughed like she didn't matter. Laughed like he didn't see his life crumbling in his own hands. Laughed, because there wasn't anything else he could do.

Then the hanyou appeared.

The first traces of the dawn sun pressed behind him, making him a dark silhouette except for his gold eyes, which caught the firelight and seemed to glow in his fury. His gaze lit upon the miko, her clothing half gone, then there was no word for the look on his face.

He knew that face. He'd worn that face. He'd happened upon his mate, her beautiful face slack with an enchanted sleep, a miko bowing over her body, holding her wrist. The miko had laughed at him, cursed him as she'd cursed his mate. An impossible task. Only after he'd shed the maiden blood of a thousand potential mothers would he even stand a chance at awakening his mate. He understood this hanyou more than he cared to admit, and now one of them was going to die.

~*~

“Where are you going?!”

Tomomi turned from the rock she was climbing, enough to look at Mitsuo over her shoulder. “Inu-inu went this way,” she said plainly. Mitsuo tried to pull her down from the boulder.

“He was following the ruined trees. He went this way,” he said, pointing into the broken forest. Tomomi pursed her lips, still gripping the big rock and halfway over it. She looked in the direction he pointed, thought for a moment, and shook her head.

“No,” she said musically. “You're wrong.” While Mitsuo sputtered, she continued over her rock. Mitsuo hastened after her, determined not to let another young woman get carried away. He'd scarcely landed on the other side of the rocky barricade when Tomomi was off again. In a completely different direction.

“I thought you said he went that way!” Mitsuo cried, exasperated.

“He did,” Tomomi replied, continuing in a perpendicular path.

“Then where are we going now?”

“To see the lady,” she said. Mitsuo threw his hands in the air and gave up. Tomomi giggled at him.

It was surprisingly hard to keep up with the girl. She effortlessly sprang over unearthed roots, sidestepped brambles, and dodged stray branches that would have scratched her. Mitsuo was decidedly less graceful, tripping over roots and ripping his clothes despite his best effort. He grimaced to himself. He belonged on a horse. He wasn't the sort to go tearing through a forest on his own two feet.

Tomomi stopped in a small clearing and looked around. She was frowning. Mitsuo took the chance to catch his breath, stooped over with his hands on his knees.

“There you are!” the girl grinned, taking off again. “Wait up!”

Utterly bewildered, Mitsuo followed. “Who are you talking to?” he asked. Tomomi pressed forward with such single-minded determination, he doubted she'd even heard him.

She slowed to a brisk walk after a while, then started picking her way down a hill. In the valley between one hill and the next, there was a small cave that Mitsuo guessed used to feed an old river. There were smooth, flat rocks at the entrance. Perhaps it was behind a waterfall? Tomomi ventured in, Mitsuo following closely. He'd already figured it was pointless to argue with the girl, or reason with her. The most he could do was keep her safe.

But he was no match for a youkai, and that's just what they found. Inside the cave, which was lit by some sort of odd mushroom, lay a female youkai in a large cradle of polished wood, cushioned with vines, flowers, and long grass. Her long, wispy hair was a translucent sea green, spilling over the edges of her bed. Her skin was covered in black, velvet-like fur. Someone had dressed her in a white silk kimono and folded her hands over her stomach, swollen with child.

Mitsuo gasped when Tomomi caught his hand. She stood close to him, anxiety written plainly on her face. She took a hesitant step forward. Mitsuo tried to hold her back.

“We should leave,” he said through clenched teeth. He didn't take his eyes off the youkai.

“She's asleep,” Tomomi announced.

Mitsuo whispered harshly, “And we should leave before she wakes up!”

She turned to him, tears in her eyes. She wasn't scared. She was sad. “We can't wake her up,” she said. Sniffling, she crossed the small cave to the sleeping youkai.