InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed ❯ Day Twenty Nine ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three - Day Twenty Nine

 

His whole body hurt. Why did his whole body hurt? He didn't want to open his eyes. Every other part of him hurt, why should opening his eyes be any different? He felt a wet cloth pressed to his head. That didn't hurt. In fact, it felt rather nice. Should he chance opening his eyes to see who had put it there? He thought on it for a moment and finally came to a decision.

 

It was a woman. She had long dark hair, large dark eyes and an expression that looked as though she were pleased for some reason.

 

“So, you've finally decided to wake up. For a while I thought you'd sleep through the entire winter.”

 

Was it winter? He asked himself.

 

When he didn't respond to her right away, she continued on for him.

 

“I'm Takana.” She said. “I found you at the bottom of a ravine next to a dead bore youkai. How you survived a fall like that, I can only guess. Someone must be looking out for you.” She removed the cloth from his head and replaced it with another.

 

“How did I get here?” He finally found the voice to ask. It hurt to talk and it came out raspy with a little cough at the end.

 

“I dragged you here. That was one of the longest treks of my life and I didn't get any gathering done that day.”

 

“What happened?” He managed to ask.

 

“I'm not sure really.” She got up and walked to where he couldn't see her. When he tried to move his head to follow her movement, he groaned. “Stop moving. I didn't spend all this time trying to get you to wake up for you to die on me now.” She was only out of his vision for a moment longer when she reappeared with a simple bowl of hollowed out wood filled with steaming broth. “You should eat something. That leg of yours will never heal right if you don't get something more into your stomach.” She spooned some up and blew on it. “This should be much easier with you awake and now you can eat something solid too. All you've been getting is meat broth and that can't be the best thing for you.”

She tasted it, found it satisfactory and placed it at his lips. Reflexively, he opened his mouth and took the offered food. It felt good on his throat and flavor was pleasant as well.

 

“I think you had a run-in with that youkai.” She continued, not missing a beat as she spooned out some more, blew on it and again fed it to him. “I was hoping you could fill me in on the rest, I'm sure it has to be a fairly exciting story.”

 

His brow furrowed together. What had happened? He tried to think about it but every time he did, he drew a complete blank. A boar youkai, she'd said. He tried again and again, there was nothing. He couldn't remember.

 

“I...don't know.”

 

She gave him a look that seemed as though she expected that answer. “What do you mean you can't remember?”

 

“I don't remember anything about a boar.” He said simply, growing a little anxious that he couldn't. Then he got another mouthful of broth.

 

“Well that's ok.” Though she sounded a little doubtful herself. “What is the last thing you do remember?”

 

He thought about it. Suddenly he got a lot more anxious. He couldn't remember anything except...a little girl? No that couldn't be all he remembered and what made it worse was that he couldn't even remember anything about that little girl either except that she smiled a lot.

 

“I...” He stumbled. The look on his face must have matched exactly how he felt because she suddenly put the bowl down and touched his cheek.

 

“Shhh, it's ok. You just woke up from about three weeks of sleeping, you had a really big gash to your head and both your arm and leg were broken. You just need more rest is all and then everything will be just fine.”

 

She looked so sincere and so kind. He couldn't help but believe what she said was true. It calmed him down immediately and was surprised at how sleepy he suddenly was as well. He felt the cloth lifted from his head once more and replaced by another as he drifted off to the warm embrace of sleep.

 

Takana watched as her patient fell asleep once more. It had been like this for the past few days. Each time he woke up, he wouldn't remember anything, including her. It had been difficult the first couple of times but she was slowly getting used to it. Now though, she was starting to worry that it wasn't going to be a temporary thing. She'd seen it once before when she was a little girl. There had been a soldier that her father had been treating that never did remember but that case was a little different. For one, he had not been in his coma for nearly as long as this one and he remembered everything that had happened before the battle, just never anything that happened each day after it. Everyday for him was like the day before that fateful skirmish. One day, he became so distraught with what had happened to him after he realized that the battle had taken place more than three years prior, that he took his own life.

 

Takana shook her head. She hoped that this was not the same as that case. She had managed to calm him down much faster than before; maybe he was starting to remember her just not consciously. She sighed, checked all his bandages and after she was satisfied that they would be fine for the night, slipped into her own futon and drifted off to sleep. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a better day.

 

 

The light penetrated his eyes and slowly he opened them. He saw her kneeling by the fire, cooking something that smelled delicious. He had no idea what it was but he knew he wanted to eat it.

 

“Takana.” He said and didn't go any further. He really didn't know what else to say and the reaction of the woman was enough to quiet whatever he could have said next anyway.

 

Takana was by his side in a second. “What did you say?” She asked immediately and in all seriousness.

 

He was taken aback. She wasn't as calm as she had been last night when he'd woken. Now she looked as though there was something she desperately needed to know and he was the only one that could tell her. He still couldn't remember anything but her name so whatever it was she wanted to hear was going to be disappointing and he hated the idea of disappointing her for some reason.

 

“Takana.” He told her. He watched as her face lit up.

 

“Oh thank the gods.” She looked so relieved and he really didn't understand why. “I was really starting to get bored with the same old conversation time after time.”

 

He was completely confused now. At least he hadn't seemed to disappoint her.

 

“Do you remember anything else besides my name?” She looked expectantly at him.

 

He sighed, tried and then replied, “No.”

 

She gave him a half smile. “That's ok, at least you remembered one thing this time.”

 

“This time?” He needed to know what was going on.

 

“That's right,” she said as she headed back to the fire. “Last night was not the first time you woke up. But this is the first time that you remembered it the next time you opened your eyes.”

 

He wasn't pleased with that answer.

 

“How many times did I do that?” He tried to sit up and his body promptly refused the order.

 

“Please don't try to move just yet. Your injuries were severe. I didn't think you were going to survive at first but you seem to be a fighter.”

 

Of course he was. He suddenly thought pompously to himself. As though her words were ridiculous when it came to him, he frowned at that. Why would he think that? He was taken out of his thoughts when she answered his question.

 

“Six times and seven seems to be your lucky number.” She returned with whatever had been cooking over the fire. It smelled so good; he could feel his mouth begin to water with anticipation. “Are you hungry?”

 

“Yes.” He blurted out with a little less dignity that he would have liked.

 

“I was hoping you'd say it like that. You must be healing up if your getting a good appetite in you.” She grabbed some rice and meat with her chopsticks and fed the food to him. To her delight, he ate the whole bowl and part of a second before he was too full to eat anymore.

 

“Well then,” she said as she set the bowl down, “what are we going to call you?”

 

The question took him by surprise. She should call him by his name but...what was it. He furrowed his brow and tried to think of it. By the gods, he should at least be able to remember that. What hope did he have of remembering anything else if he couldn't even remember his own name?

 

“Can't remember it, can you?”

 

He shook his head at her correct appraisal of the situation.

 

“Well, let's just give you a temporary one for a while ok?” When he nodded his head in the affirmative, not really caring one way or the other at the moment, she continued. “What would be good for you? Hmmm, how about Naoto?”

 

He shook his head, he didn't like that one.

 

“Ok, how about...Emori?” She had known a young boy by that name back when she lived in her village with her father but again, her patient shook his head. “You're a tough one to please. How about...my younger brother's name, Shin?”

 

He thought on that one for a bit. Why not, it wasn't as though he should have an affinity for any of those names and there was not point in taking up her entire morning going through a long list of them. He nodded his approval and she looked genuinely please by it.

 

“Good, Shin it is. I always liked my little brother. It will be nice to say the name again, even if it is for a different person.

 

AN: For clarification, this is an OC fic. Sess will be the only Inuyasha and Co. character in this fic. All the others will be from my own demented mind.

 

White Luna - Yeah, I wanted a nearly defenseless Sess and a hanyou just wasn't going to cut it. I have always been a fan of the `fish out of water' stories and this is my first real attempt at one.

angelsfalltearfully - Yeah, first chapters are always a little slow until both reader and writer get invested in them but I already have a few fleshed out and I'm quickly drowning in this story but in a good way.

Nikkie23534 - Thanks! I'm looking forward to your support.

simplyelena - I hope I'm able to keep your interest since this is an OC fic.