InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten ❯ Death of a Legend ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or anyone from the hit anime/manga series “Inuyasha”. Rumiko Takahashi does. I do own all OC's in this story.

 

Warning: This contains strong violence.

 

195 years Before the Search for the Jewel Shards

 

Chapter Eight: Death of a Legend

 

The lack of instincts was the most sharply displayed when Sagara faced my grandfather. If he had had them then he would have known Jounochi was on to him the moment he walked into the room. The only thing that spared him then, and all other times, is his quick reactions and ability to not question doing something that might look stupid if he guessed wrong on someone's intent. Needless to say, he never looked stupid doing something, because he was never wrong in guessing when people wanted to kill him.

-Inuyasha

 

Jounochi stood on the engawa and stared at the city beyond his manor. The ground had shaken only a little while ago, but it didn't seem like a normal quake. It had seemed far too shallow. He motioned to one of his vassals and whispered, “Go investigate, that tremor felt wrong.” The man bowed to his lord and departed.

 

`What is going on,' he wondered, stepping off the engawa and into his sandals. `Something feels odd today.' He looked up at his clan's blue banner with the simple image of white, folded wings. To the uninitiated, it closely resembled a cat's eye.

 

He was about to turn away when the white reflected an orange glow. Then he heard screams of terror and cries of “fire”. Looking in the direction of the shouts, he saw a column of fire rising into the sky. Calling for his men, he ran toward the blaze.

 

People fled in all directions from the swirling, ever growing inferno; several buildings were already alight and swiftly becoming ash. `If this continues the whole city will burn,' he thought and ran past the fire to the river beyond.

 

Summoning his power, he reached toward the water and spoke a spell verse. A part of the river reared up and took form as a dragon; its serpentine body remaining in the raging water. Lifting his hands, Jounochi directed the water spirit's attention toward the fire. Then he shoved his left palm forward. The dragon sprayed a steady stream of water at the out-of-control flames.

 

Rotating his body at the waist, he directed the stream. The fire vanished from the buildings and only the whirlwind remained. Jounochi ran forward and the water spirit followed him up the river. Again he shoved his left palm forward and the dragon sprayed water at the swirling flames. The whirlwind shuddered and shrank a bit before the water began to twirl around it. As the captured stream sailed upward it turned to steam. The fire remained.

 

“Wind,” he whispered in fear. “Only wind could capture water. Fire and wind, what a deadly combination. The fire to destroy and the wind to drive and shield it.” Changing his tactics, he directed the water spirit's attack at the base of the whirlwind.

 

Dirt and water sprayed upward into the swirling inferno's heart. The flying mud disrupted the wind and buried the fire. The whirlwind bent and twisted as the fountain of mud took its toll. It shrank further and Jounochi advanced until the fire and wind were gone.

 

With the fire out and feeling the strain of using so much magic, he dismissed the dragon. Gasping for air, he then heard someone coughing. Walking forward, he saw a small child covered in mud. The child was on all fours where the whirlwind of fire had been centered. When Jounochi got closer, he saw the child had dog ears. Shocked, he ran to Inuyasha and, placing his hand on the boy's back to steady the child, he used his sleeve to wipe the mud from his face.

 

“Easy boy, you'll be alright. Just a little mud, that's all,” he said in a calming voice when Inuyasha started coughing again. The hanyou looked up at him with terrified golden eyes. “It's alright, Inuyasha. Everything is alright now.”

 

Inuyasha coughed again then shoved his grandfather away. Staggering to his feet, he began to run. “Inuyasha, where are you going? Come back here!” shouted his grandfather, climbing to his feet and running after his grandson.

 

Inuyasha, suddenly realizing he was heading in the direction he had last seen Sagara, turned toward the river and tried to leap across. Jounochi cried out in fear, the river was swollen from recent rains upstream. Fire flashed out of the boy's back forming what appeared to be small wings. They flapped twice and Inuyasha remained airborne, but his magic, already exhausted from forming the whirlwind, couldn't hold him up long. The wings vanished when he was halfway across. The boy fell into the river with a cry and disappeared beneath the muddy waters. Jounochi yelled and reached for the river with his magic, but the swiftness of the current and his own exhaustion prevented him from pulling Inuyasha from the water.

 

“No! This can't be! This can't…” Jounochi whispered as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. Then he shouted, “Inuyasha!” Turning away from the river that had just taken his grandson from him, he saw a terrible sight. The corpses hadn't been burned and he could easily see who they were.

 

Yuki and Ayume. They had both been killed, but he wasn't sure by what means. Ayume was clearly sliced in two by a blade, but Yuki's wounds were strange. `Almost as if a metal tenko had attacked them,' he thought then remembered Katsuya's words about the yin. `Could the killer be a tenko? Then Inuyasha's fire awakened in self-defense.' He looked around, but there was no other corpse, burned or otherwise, than the two women.

 

Before he could ponder it further, Kuromaru and the man he sent to investigate the tremor ran up to him along with a number of other vassals. “Yahiko has been killed,” said Kuromaru when he stopped in front of his father. “Something hit him from behind. It completely tore through him.”

 

“Was he like these two?” Jounochi asked, gesturing to dead women.

 

Before Kuromaru could comment, the man gasped, pointing to Jounochi's left hand and asked, “Are you injured, my lord?”

 

“What? No,” he replied then looked at his hand. The mud on his palm and fingers was crimson as was a part of his sleeve. He looked at the other sleeve, the one he used to wipe Inuyasha's face. It too had blood splatters as well as mud. “Inuyasha!” he gasped in shock.

 

“Inuyasha! Where is he?” demanded Kuromaru.

 

“The river,” replied Jounochi, his face falling. “He ran from me and fell in.”

 

“I'll go look for him,” said Kuromaru, staring at the river. “We can't be certain of anything; he's half demon and Kenhoshi's son!” He motioned to the men behind him and the group ran down stream.

 

“Please, let him still be alive,” whispered Jounochi as he watched his son depart.

 

“My lord, there is something you should know,” said the man. Jounochi turned toward him and waited. “Where Yahiko died… he appeared to have been in the midst of battle. The way the earth settled suggests he fought wind and he does appear to have died in the same fashion as her.” He gestured to Yuki.

 

`Wind and metal?' he wondered then shook his head. “Thank you for your report. I'm returning to the manor now to wash up.” The man bowed and Jounochi headed back.

 

`Wind and metal… what could they mean?' he thought as he walked. `Are two people behind this? Or have we all missed something important? When the forces of yin enter our tribe they usually appear in the form of one person, the devil tenko. How can there be two? Or maybe we have been too limited in our thinking.' The image of his other grandson, Sagara, appeared before his vision.

 

“Wind!” he whispered, his heart growing cold. `He never acted like a wind tenko and he mastered his powers practically overnight. Then there is the fact he gives everyone the chills when he looks at them. He's cold, calculating, precise… like metal.'

 

Jounochi's expression darkened and he clenched his fists as his blood began to burn. Bits of lightning began to dance up his legs and along his back, making his samurai ponytail hover and twitch above his spine. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his power back in. He couldn't waste anymore energy; he had to save it for when he found Sagara.

 

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Sagara entered the medicine storage room. The wound in his shoulder was bad, but some of the ingredients he needed for his spell were also there. A healer walked in and froze when she saw him.

 

“What are you doing raiding the supplies?” she demanded. Sagara almost breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently word of his betrayal hadn't spread yet.

 

“I'm getting a few things for my shoulder, I was caught in that fireball back there,” he said in a smooth, coaxing voice. “I didn't want to bother you with such a minor thing.”

 

The woman clucked and said, “I will determine what injuries are beneath my attention, now come here.” Sagara gave a long suffering sigh while he slipped the last ingredient into his pouch. Then he turned around to face her. Her finger probed the wound and she made irritated noises. “`Minor' you say. Hah! This cut is bone deep and it's burned as well!”

 

As she tended it, the shoji to the outside slid open and Jounochi stood in the entryway. His dark expression made Sagara wary, but when his grandfather just went over to a bucket of water and began to wash the mud off his hands, Sagara shrugged it off as frustration.

 

`He doesn't seem to have realized it was me yet, I still have time,' thought Sagara, turning away from the older man.

 

“It seems you got that fire out,” commented the healer.

 

“Yes, but Inuyasha fell into the river. Kuromaru went after him, but he may well be bringing home a corpse,” said Jounochi, his voice low and deeper pitched.

 

Sagara barely refrained from smiling. `Maybe everything isn't a total loss.'

 

Jounochi watched his grandson from the corner of his eye. He was certain Sagara had tensed when he entered the room then relaxed when Jounochi stated what happened to Inuyasha. `There can be no further doubt; Sagara is the one,' he thought. He stood up, dried his hands on a spare cloth, turned to face Sagara's back and silently drew his sword.

 

The healer caught the motion in her peripheral vision and glanced at him. “My lord?” she said with a touch of alarm, her eyes widening. Sagara noted her tone and expression and dove forward just as Jounochi swung the blade. The sword still bit, but it failed to make the fatal connection Jounochi wanted. He dove into the hall after Sagara. The healer stumbled away from the young man as he turned to face his grandfather. A maid and Toromaru had been walking up the hall and now stared in shock at the sight before them.

 

“Grandfather! What are you doing?” cried Toromaru in terror. Jounochi ignored him and called upon his power now that the healer wasn't touching Sagara. Lightning crawled down his arms and clung to his sword.

 

Sagara hissed, knowing he had no way of block a lightning attack. He jumped toward the maid and grabbed the bucket of water she was holding then threw its contents on himself and Toromaru while the maid screamed and fell back. He grabbed Toromaru and pulled his brother against him.

 

Jounochi growled and held back his assault. Sagara quickly reached out his metal senses for the glaive he had bewitched all those years ago. Feeling its response, he summoned it to him. Toromaru, briefly surprised, grabbed at Sagara and threw him over his shoulder then jumped back.

 

Jounochi moved to attack when the wall behind him erupted and Sagara's glaive flew through it and the old tenko lord. Jounochi fell to the ground as Sagara caught the glaive. He whipped around and the healer fell screaming as blood and intestines poured out of the wound in her abdomen.

 

Toromaru slid his hands along the ground then yanked them up. Sagara howled as an earth spike tore through the floor and sliced the inner side of his leg knocking him back and away from Jounochi's body. Toromaru leapt forward, grabbed the diamond tied around his grandfather's throat then fled down the hall.

 

Toromaru exited the building just as Sagara erupted from the roof, debris flying around him, his expression livid. He looked over his shoulder in time to see a wood beam flying at him. Ducking, he punched the ground and the beam smashed into an earth column.

 

He got up and seeing people running toward him, he shouted, “Tenko attack! Metal stay back and hold down every spear and blade in the area. Elementals attack with all the power you have! Kill him! Kill him!” He jumped clear of another flying beam and glanced up. Thunder boomed as lightning flew and struck a soaring shoji.

 

Swinging his glaive, Sagara sent beams and screens reigning down on the people below. He then snatched up every piece of metal in the manor beneath him. The weapons, sword, arrows, spears, glaives, knives, all rose and danced around him. With a twist of his glaive he sent the dancing blades flying toward Toromaru and the defenders.

 

Tenko and humans screamed as they dove for cover or tried to defend themselves from the rain of weapons. Sagara smiled in sadistic glee as people fell before his swirling blades. Toromaru summoned wall after wall of earth to block the weapons flying at him and others, but they pulled free of the earth the moment they hit it and came back for another go.

 

Sagara laughed as he watched their losing efforts to stay alive. He had never before experienced such joy in killing and he relished the sensation. Then something sliced through his side just below the rib cage. He saw the many pale crescents of a wind blade attack fly by him. Only one had hit; his swirling wind had thrown the others off course. He looked behind him and saw a wind tenko floating above. He turned and slashed his glaive at her; giving her his wind blades. She dropped; entering freefall to avoid being hit then caught herself before she collided with the ground. Thunder boomed again and he saw a beam light up as lightning struck it. He glanced down; the blow to his side had broken his concentration and now the survivors were attacking again.

 

Growling, he checked his wound. It was serious and he was being attacked from two sides. With the odds now severely against him, he turned and flew away from Toromaru and Kyoto.

 

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Chapter Nine: Daughter of Mine

 

After a century apart, Kaiyoshinju is summoned back to the castle for a special honor and duty. There are many new faces but none are as shocking as the one she brings with her.

 

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Engawa: The veranda, outer hallway

Hanyou: half-demon

Shoji: paper-screen, sliding door.

 

I guess the weekends are a lousy time to post because nobody is saying anything about the latest chapters.

 

We're jumping back to Sesshomaru in the next chapter.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. No matter what I do in this story it WILL tie into the series by the end. So no panicking.

 

The reasoning behind the chapter title is because Jounochi has a story all his own but since this book is about Inuyasha and Sesshomaru it has taken a back seat. However, he was an incredible person in life and the gem Toromaru grabbed is very important and part of Jounochi's legend.