InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten ❯ Sanshaku no Hinansho ( Chapter 18 )

Disclaimer:  I do not own Inuyasha, Sesshomaru or anyone from the hit anime/manga series.  Rumiko Takahashi does.  I do own all OC’s and plot from this story.   179 years Before the Search for the Jewel Shards   Chapter Eighteen:  Sanshaku no Hinansho   Built long ago during the Tenshi Generations, the sanctuary was literally carved out from a mountain.  They say the tenshi that created it sang spells as they worked.  These active spells absorb power from everything, the sun, the storms, the wind, even attacks.  The more an enemy attacks the sanctuary the stronger its defenses become. -Inuyasha   Inuyasha ran through the corridor.  Crystals embedded into the walls and ceiling glowed a faint blue and green casting an eerie light to navigate by.  Along the halls and in the galleries numerous people huddled, some sobbed while others tried to tend to wounded.  He blocked out the sounds and focused his mind on his task.  He needed to get to the top of the tower where the call crystal resided.   Every village, way station, castle town, shrine, and roadside tea house in Tenji was supposed to have one for emergencies.  The crystals allowed for the sending and receiving of messages.  However, the crystals in general had short range, needing clear air between themselves and others.  This meant the messages had to be relayed.  In Tenji’s infancy someone was always stationed at the message tower as it doubled as a watch tower.  Now there was little point in keeping watch for invaders that never appeared.  Simple merchants and horse-borne messengers were good enough for everyday news.  Demon horses could carry an urgent message more direct and thus faster than the crystals.  Thus the crystals sat neglected at the top of their abandoned watch towers.  Many newer villages hadn’t even bothered with them.   The crystal in Sanshaku no Hinansho, ten times bigger than the head-sized village crystals and sitting atop an ancient mountain surrounded by nothing but open plains,however had tremendous range.  Nearly every crystal in Tenji would echo with his warning.  Most of Tenji, more than likely, didn’t know about the continuing massacre sweeping across the land.  Lives may be save if he could just activate the crystal.   *****   Kenji knew he was the swiftest of his tribe.  He could even outrun a number of the tenko’s demon horses.  Right then, however, he felt he couldn’t run fast enough.  With every moment that past more helpless people were being slaughtered by the horde he’d seen.   Over the years the border of Tenji had expanded.  It could take days of walking to reach the border from the interior.  Kenji could cover that distance in one if he pushed himself, however, he would be completely spent afterwards.  The tenko would have to be convinced and hurriedly assembled.  Even with demon horses to carry them into the interior, it would be a hard day’s ride.  The horses would be useless when they arrived and the tenko would be fatigued.   Two days.  Two days of unchecked murder and mayhem.   Kenji gritted his teeth and pushed himself to run faster, knowing it all in vain.   ****   Hitomi stared up at the sky.  Smoke darkened the horizon.  Uneasy, she called to her daughter.  A little girl, no more than six, skipped up to her side.   “Go fetch me the other women,” she said in a light tone, trying not to alarm the child.  The little one nodded and dashed off.  Hitomi turned back to the hazing sky; her thoughts troubled.   There is no possible way he survived.  Not against Sesshomaru.  Not unless…   ****   Toromaru found himself again approaching his father on a subject that had been parried by the tenko lord for more than a year.  For several years now, the border patrols had reported seemingly isolated pockets of samurai and demons trying to cross into Tenji.  A regular occurrence and nothing anyone in Kyoto should have been interested in, least of all the lord’s son.  However, Toromaru, still uncertain of his treacherous brother’s fate despite the report of Sesshomaru having pursued him, had made a point to pay attention to any reports of hostile activity in and around Tenji.  The reports of attempted border crossings at first hadn’t gotten his attention until he noticed the frequency in which they were occurring.   The attempted border crossing, though happening in different areas, had increased to six times the average for a year.  It also had continued at the high rate for several years.  Toromaru had then looked up reports of interior activity, knowing that border patrols while effective in keeping out most of the trouble couldn’t repel all.  The expanding border meant more territory that patrols had to guard, more openings for trespassers to slip through especially if they were few in number.  Small numbers like those being found by the patrols in the last several years, another concerning fact for Toromaru.  If hostile people, even few in number, were managing to slip through the gaps there should have been a report of these people causing trouble somewhere in the interior before being ousted.  However, not only was there no increase in trouble, it had actually decreased.  Even Tenji’s malcontents, who were known to cause a ruckus from time to time, were quiet.   Toromaru found it disturbing.   His father found it wonderful.   “It just means we’re finally catching everyone who is trying to crossover and the troublemakers have come to their senses.  Why should this be a cause for concern?  You’re just imagining problems.  Focus on the task at hand and stop wasting time inventing phantom enemies,” Kuromaru told him months ago.   Toromaru had mulled over his father’s words, but couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.  Then, on a hunch, he had gone over the reports of missing people.  It was usually full of names of rambunctious youths who had had arguments with parents and then run off.  They were solved within days.  One report, though, had stuck out.  A young tenko healer of minor talent had never turned up for a prearranged celebration.  The family had thought it strange but didn’t report it until later.  They had thought she might have been busy with an emergency patient and had merely been delayed.  After two weeks and still no sign of her, they became concerned.   That was sixteen years ago and the case remain unsolved.   Toromaru read through the report.  She had last been seen by a patient near the western border; a day’s ride southeast of Kyoto.  The villagers had remembered she had planned to travel further west to areas that saw more raids and few healers of high quality.  She had left the village before dawn, only hours before his brother’s insurrection.  The celebration had been three days afterwards and two weeks more had past before anyone started looking for her.   Toromaru wrung his hands within his voluminous chocolate-brown sleeves.  More than enough time to dispose of a body.  More than enough time for a hanyou to recover from near fatal wounds with the aid of a wood tenko, even a minor one.  We know Sesshomaru pursued him.  We know Sagara incited the demon lord.  So we concluded that Sesshomaru, who had returned from the chase alive, though injured, had killed him.   But there hadn’t been a body…   Not an important clue when one remembered celestial power, pure celestial power, could reduce a target to its most basic components, vaporizing it.  Still Toromaru couldn’t shake the threads tying one event to another, pointing to one horrifying conclusion.   Now if he could just convince his father.   Sighing, he entered the meeting hall where his father was talking with the generals.  This was going to make things even stickier than normal.  The men and women glanced at him as he entered then returned their attention to his father.   “Toromaru…  What is it?”asked his father.  Toromaru heard the edge to the question.  Kuromaru, aware of his son’s worries, wondered at his sudden appearance to a military meeting.  It wasn’t wrong for him to be here, just unusual.   “I’ve come to discuss that topic again,” he replied, hoping to spare his father embarrassment by being cryptic.  Kuromaru’s narrowing eyes and flushing face destroyed any hope of a private conversation.  He clearly didn’t want to hear it.   “We’ve been through this before.  You’re wasting your efforts on a phantom-” started Kuromaru.   “And I say the evidence supports the opposite!” yelled Toromaru, his patients gone.  He had attempted reason for far too long.  His father just didn’t want to be convinced, and time could be running out for everyone.   “It is insignificant and means nothing close to what you are implying!” Kuromaru hollered back, the generals forgotten in his anger.   Toromaru had not forgotten, though, and pressed harder if only to be heard by more reasonable people.  “Only when looked at individually.  Link them and they create a frightening picture!”   “One drawn from your paranoia!”   “Are you willing to risk the safety of your people on a wish?  You’re being short-sighted!”   Just as Toromaru hoped, one of the generals spoke up.  “Lord Kuromaru, what is your son talking about?”   The lord started then hurriedly said, “Nothing that concerns anyone else here.”   “Not true!” snapped Toromaru.  “I believe I have evidence that supports not only Sagara surviving but that he might be massing forces within our borders.”  The generals gasped and turned questioning gazes to their lord who was livid.   “Toromaru!”   “I have reports of increased activity at the border involving small groups of samurai and demons, all perceived as hostile from several years.  I also have the report of a missing wood tenko who vanished right about the time of Sagara’s insurrection.  I also have reports to display a disturbing calm among our own malcontents.  You know those borders; you know you can’t stop everything especially if they move in small groups.  The wood tenko was close but not in Kyoto at the time so she couldn’t have been killed in the melee.  Especially since we checked the identities of every corpse there.  She was never found!  And we all know that the malcontents wouldn’t suddenly turn saint for no reason.  They’re keeping quiet because they are doing something.  They don’t have time to cause trouble nor the desire to attract attention to whatever they are doing.  Something big and terrible is about to occur and Father is refusing to do anything about it!”   It was said and there was no taking it back.  The generals could either agree with his assessment or back his father.  Toromaru really wished it hadn’t come to this.  He had not wanted his father to look like an irresponsible fool, but he could no longer let things stand.  Something had had to be done.  The generals looked at each other as they weighed his words, but they never got a chance to voice their opinion.   Footsteps pounded outside and the shoji was flung open almost flying from its tracks.  A young woman stood there panting.  An icy chill crept up Toromaru’s spine.   “Lord Kuromaru, Lord Generals, Lord Toromaru!  The call crystal has sung.  The western half of Tenji is in flames!”   I’m too late! _________________________________________________________________ _____________   I know this one seems rather short.  But I felt it couldn’t go beyond this point.  It probably also felt like a professor’s lecture as I gave more details about Tenji.  Toromaru’s section did feel a bit more like CSI than feudal Japan, but I needed to start showing Toromaru’s strength and Kuromaru’s weakness.  It will become important later on in the story.   The tenko are actually very advance, not in technology but in other aspects of science and society.  This is what makes them different and hard for outsiders to understand and tolerate.  Tenko know about atoms, they know about genes, they know about molecules and cells.  The phrase “reduce to its most basic components” means to atomize or cause something to break down into free atoms, even molecule are torn apart.  However, the era’s vocabulary hasn’t caught up so they often refer to these things in descriptive terms.  Genes would be “the inbred design”, cells would be “life’s masonry”, molecules are “basic structure”, while atoms obviously are “most basic components.”  They also know about chemistry so their medicines are pretty advance since many of their healers can “purify the medicine”.   I know the above details might bore you but there will be no place in the story for this to be sorted out since Tenji as a whole thinks like this.  With no character that is new to this place there isn’t any way to express the gap between Tenji and the rest of the world.  So from time to time I’ll be putting in these types of details.  Why the tenko happen to be so advance has to do with their history which you’ve had hinted at a bit.  I hope I get to talk about the origins of the tenko, the strange angels known as enzeru, and the whole Shugotenshi and his war that Kenhoshi brought up as well as the five Guardians of Tenji and what they are really guarding and why.   Chapter 19:  Aftermath:  The Endless Road Ahead   As Kuromaru’s army retreats for the day, only destruction and death remains.  Who survived and who didn’t that horrendous Devil’s Awakening?