InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Double Vision ❯ Chapter 67

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Jak had found it hard to sleep the night after Sesshomaru used Bakusaiga to bring down the rockslide to cover Kohaku’s grave.  He tossed and turned, thinking about the sad life his little ninja had led.  Like Kagome, Jak was worried that whoever had brought him and Bank back from the grave might do the same to Kohaku.  When morning came at last, it dawned gray, cold and rainy.  Jak felt restless.  He had to get out of the cave and find some action.  Ah-Uhn was flying low and slow, barely above the tree line, with Jak mounted on their back.  Jak had been practicing wielding his sword from his place on Ah-Uhn’s saddle.  When they spotted a band of ten ronin making their way on foot down the small road that wound through the dense forest, Ah’s ears pricked up with interest.  Lord Sesshomaru had made a practice of harrying ronin who dared to venture into the Western Lands.  Uhn, more impetuous and less cerebral than his other half, was excited to be carrying an armed warrior rather than a young child.  Not waiting for a command from their rider, he sent their body into a precipitous dive, summoning searing bolts of lightning and crashes of thunder to add to the excitement.  Jak looped one bare leg through the dragon’s leather harness, hanging on for dear life and shrieking with alarm.  He had no idea whatsoever what was going on.

Finding himself mounted on a rampant and seemingly mad dragon in the midst of a milling and panicked band of ronin, Jak did what came naturally.  Leaning far over one side of Ah-Uhn, and using the other side as cover, he drew his sword, and set about slaughtering as many of the rogue Samurai as possible.   Slashing and parrying, he took out one, two, then three of his opponents.  His heavy, flat, two-handed sword hacked through the human men like butter.  Their flesh, bones, and even their armor, which was largely wood and bamboo.  His sword flashed again.  A severed head, like a turtle in its metal helmet, spun through the air, bright arterial blood spinning out from the stump of the neck.  Ah-Uhn’s long, heavy tail, covered with armored spikes, flailed from one side to the other, making it hard for Jak to hang on, but affording him time by knocking several ronin yards away from the battle.  Great sharp dragon claws slashed at human flesh, disemboweling one man that had nearly severed Jak’s left leg, which was twisted into the dragon’s battle harness.  Jak’s heart beat fast in his chest, sweat broke out under his arms, and trembling took over his body from the tips of his toes to his painted lips.  The adrenalin rush was incomparable.  Though wounded, for once he felt truly alive.  He was disappointed when his last opponent cut and ran for the cover of the forest.             

When Jak had wielded Jakotsutou, he had the ability to reach out and slaughter his enemies from a good distance.  The weapon was unique, and he had enjoyed the shocked looks of his victims when he whipped the strange sword over his shoulder and let it unfurl like chain lightning, leaving pools of blood and severed limbs in its wake.  With Jakotsutou, he could easily take down a dozen Samurai single-handed without ever coming within striking distance of their katanas.  His new sword, while a venerable and worthy blade, harbored no hidden secrets or surprises.  It was a plain, heavy broadsword.  He carried it over his shoulder, as he had Jakotsutou.  The broadsword required that he get up close and personal with his victims.  He could only take on one, or at the most two opponents at a time.  There was a lot more risk involved in fighting at close quarters, but the flesh of his leg was already binding itself together, his bodily fluids going from bright green, to dark green, to dark red, and finally to pitch black.  Jak had found the blood bath exhilarating.

‘Exhilarating and profitable.’  Jak told himself, as he rummaged through the trunks and bundles that had been carried by the ronin.  They had apparently been making their living as bandits, and their booty included a trunk filled with fine and colorful kimonos.  Protected by the silk, he found a very special prize.  A mirror, a most precious and valuable treasure to be sure.  Gazing into the reflective glass, he grimaced at the blood that coated him from head to foot.  So messy!  He fished out a kimono to clean himself with.  Spoiling the mustard-yellow silk didn’t bother him at all, it was a tacky monstrosity which offended his eyes anyway.  He quickly stripped down to bare skin, taking his time as he carefully re-dressed himself in an exotic caftan of glowing rose silk.  He smiled into the mirror.  Truly lovely.   He finished up by searching the dead bodies and pocketing the money and jewelry he found on them.   

The spontaneous adventure brought to mind memories of his early career as an assassin and highwayman, when he was very young and it was just him and Bank.  The pair had worked out a variety of scenarios.  The common factor in all of them was that the young and vulnerable-looking Jak served as bait, or a decoy, while Bank closed in for the kill.  It had been a hell of a lot of fun at the time, a sort of deadly street theatre.  The pay was great too.   On the way back to the cave, Jak’s mind was busy imagining different ways he could use the battle dragon.

The next day was taken up with training Kagome and Shippou to fight, and the arrival of Kouga and his wolves, followed by another restless night spent thinking about Kohaku.  By dawn, Jak was gone again.

Jak and Ah-Uhn flew over the countryside, covering miles of territory in every direction.  The landscape was painted in shades of brown and gray.  Brown fields, brown leaves carpeting the forest floors under gray, skeleton-like trees, gray, rocky, mountains.  Evergreen forests were colored a green so dark it looked almost black.  Lakes reflected the color of the sky, dark expanses of slate.  The villages they soared over were brown and gray too.  Weathered wood shacks, dull-coated farm animals.  Jak sighed.  He loved summer, and bright colors.  Silk and blood and flashing swords.

After flying for many hours, and seeing only poor villages, and livestock, and trees and deer and suchlike, they spotted an oni, a large purple humanoid thing, fishing in a stream for his dinner.  He had nothing of value to steal, but Jak and Ah Uhn engaged him in battle anyway, leaving his dismembered body to rot once they had killed him, slowly and messily.  Jak suffered no qualms over killing needlessly.  He had no concept of waste, and left the dismembered body to rot by the side of the stream.

It was coming on toward evening, and they had traveled far.  Jak shifted his weight, signaling Ah-Uhn that it was time to return to the cave to watch over their master’s pack.  Twilight was darkening towards night, and they had almost made it back to the cave, when Ah-Uhn startled Jak with a sudden change in direction.  Jak looked around, thinking they must be under attack.  He saw nothing.  No giant bats, flying lizards, two-headed carrion crows, nothing to account for Ah-Uhn’s sudden mutiny.  He pulled the reins sharply to the side, bringing both heads around so they were pulled against his knee.  Ah-Uhn struggled against him, but Jak was very strong and agile.  He clung to the dragon, which was thrashing in the air.  The dragon did a fast barrel-roll, attempting to dislodge his rider, who clung on tenaciously.  Ah-Uhn’s sensitive ears had picked up the sound of Jaken’s flute from far away, and he had been trained to obey the summons, Jakotsu or no Jakotsu.

Inside the smithy, Ken and Kin were sharing a bottle of sake and relaxing after a hard day of work.  Ken, the armorer, cocked his head to one side.  Kin knew he had heard something of interest.  His own hearing was not the best, dulled by centuries of pounding metal and demon bone at his forge.  He was about to ask his partner what he had heard, when Ken grabbed his arm and pulled him through the door.  The street outside was filled with villagers.  Every face was tilted up toward the sky.

“That’s Jakotsu, the boy I sold my father’s sword to!”  Exclaimed Kin, excitedly, as he watched the battle taking place in the sky.  Jak was clinging like a monkey to the harness of a very fierce and annoyed-looking battle dragon, kicking the brute in the head while sawing madly on the reins.  The dragon was spinning in the sky, attempting to dislodge its rider.  Jak drew his sword, and began to beat the flat edge of the blade against his mount’s muscular neck.  This was too much for Uhn, who grabbed Jak by the scuff of his neck and peeled him loose, throwing him down into the midst of the crowd of onlookers.

Normally, Jak could fall from a great height, twist and turn, and land like a cat.  But Uhn had hurt him badly, biting deep into his neck and shoulder with his big, wicked teeth, then ripping him loose from the hold he had on the dragon’s battle harness.  He had not fallen to the ground, but been hurled with great force, and he landed badly, with a sickening crack.  He felt bones give way, great pain, and then nothing at all.   

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       &nbs p;