InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Goodbye To Romance ❯ Pick Up The Bones ( Chapter 3 )

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

Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, or form own Inuyasha, or the characters within. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Entertainment.
Goodbye to Romance is a song by Ozzy Osbourne, so I don't even own that.
And the Cheese Man is the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.

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The warrior sat before the baboon-clad man in what used to be the hut he had shared with his family. After a moment he said, “you were going to tell me what happened here?”

Naraku grinned malevolently. “It all begins with a jewel. I'm sure you've heard of the Shikon no Tama?” At the man's nod, Naraku continued, “due to the careless girl who should have been guarding it, it was smashed into hundreds of pieces and spread all over the land. Can you imagine? Hundreds of little Shikon jewels, lying around, just waiting to be picked up by whatever passes by?” Naraku reached into his cloak and brought out three small jewel shards resting in his palm. “The jewel's so-called guardian didn't, and still doesn't realize the implications of what she did that day, and your village died as a result.”

“Get on with it, what does this have to do with wolves?”

“As you know, demons tend to be very territorial… And they love to war with each other. The mountains your village happens to rest by, were the object of just such a war over territory; between the Birds of Paradise and the wolves. One of the Birds had gotten a shard, the Wolf Prince, Kouga got two. But it wasn't enough for the greedy wolves. They were still losing. A human man happened to find a shard, and sought refuge here, only to be found by the Wolf Prince and slaughtered brutally for the shard.” Naraku brought out a mirror, which had an image of a wolf demon with long, black hair. “But don't take my word for it, watch for yourself, as your village is destroyed in an act of genocide, all for the amusement of some base animals. Killing for food is one thing, but they didn't even try to eat most of the bodies.”

Naraku waved his hand and the entire horrible scene played out, the man winced and groaned as friends and neighbours fell to the beasts. He lasted until he saw his four year old daughter literally ripped in half by two wolves playing a sick game of tug-of-war. “Enough! Why should I trust your version of events anyway? You obviously possess some dark magic yourself, how am I to know that you aren't simply framing the wolves?”

Naraku smirked, and chuckled. “You are right not to trust me. I am a monster. I take delight in the suffering and pain of others, and I am very capable of doing what you're accusing me of. But here's the thing,” Naraku leaned forward, “I wouldn't have bothered with this shithole of a village. There's nothing special here worth destroying. I'm telling you what happened here because it suits my purposes to do so. I'm going to offer you the means with which to get your revenge because it suits my plan. Everything I do has a purpose, but what happened here was simple, savage, animal destruction. And I find that most distasteful. But don't take my word for it, dig up a body, look at the bite marks. Look around the village and see all the left-over wolf bits.”

The man got up, his hand resting on his sword. “I have no time for that. I must go avenge my family and neighbours.” He made his way to the door of the hut, but was stopped by a tentacle tightly gripping his shoulder.

Naraku's deep, seductive voice floated to the man's ears. “You won't last till nightfall. Not as you are now, not against a pack of demonic wolves. That's where I come in.”

The man slumped against his doorway, knowing this Naraku had a point. “And what? Am I expected to bargain with the Devil? I have not fallen that low.”

“Now, now,” Naraku cooed. “Is that anyway to talk to the one who's about to give you your vengeance?” With that, he inserted the corrupted shards into the man. Naraku chuckled as the screams could be heard for miles well into the night.

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Inuyasha ran and jumped as far and as fast as he could from the cave and his friends. `Keh. Some friends. I would have died for those bastards, but I guess that was the herb too.' He paused at a large cliff, and looked down to the rocks below. “If I jumped, would it make a difference? If I'm just here to be used, first by Kikyo, then Kagome and the others, and now by whoever's designed that dream. Does it matter if a tool lives?” Inuyasha contemplated this for a moment. “Keh, that's enough whining. Time for a new journey. Mount Rishiri… That's a volcano. It's inactive, but still, getting inside's going to be no picnic.” He looked toward the general direction of the sea of Japan, and took off.

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The now reduced to four group of shard hunters sat and tried to determine what their next course of action should be. Sango got them started, “so do we continue on our way, or regroup at Kaede's?”

“With Inuyasha gone, it's going to make traveling this road a lot more difficult. I doubt Kirara would enjoy carrying all of us for very long.” Miroku mused. “Then there is the problem of actually fighting any shard possessing demons we come across. Without Inuyasha's strength we're at a severe disadvantage.”

“It's not like we were getting anywhere on this trip, anyway.” Kagome pointed out. “The only other living being we've run into is Kouga.”

“Why don't we join up with him?” Sango asked. “He did say we were welcome, and he's at least as strong as Inuyasha. We could do worse for allies.”

“But what if Inuyasha wants to rejoin us someday? If he's replaced by Kouga… It's like the ultimate insult for him” Kagome argued.

“But we can't let that remote possibility make us dismiss this idea. It's not a bad one.” Miroku pointed out. “Look, Kagome, as much as I valued our friendship, Inuyasha's downfall will be his stubborn pride. He's just found out that his most trusted friends have been manipulating him for months. I still think he'll be there to aid us in our fight against Naraku, but as much as I regret this, he's never going to join up with us permanently again. It's time we faced that.”

“Kagome, it's going to be you who's most affected by this decision to go to Kouga or not.” Sango said gently. “It should be your choice.”

“I need some air,” Kagome muttered, as she stood and walked out of the cave.

`How did it all go so wrong?' Kagome wondered to herself. `Just a week ago, we were laughing, and arguing, and everything was fine. Is he really gone for good?' She thought back to all of their words and actions from the past few days, `if I were in his place, would I have stayed?' Kagome had to admit that she probably wouldn't. As forgiving as she and Inuyasha both were, the herb was crossing a line. `I've lost him… I'm no better than those guys who put drugs in people's drinks so they can rape them.'

She sat and wept for what she had done, and prayed that one day Inuyasha would be able to forgive them. And she pondered whether to go through with this plan to go to Kouga. But what choice did they have? They'd be a lot safer with a demon on their side, even if that demon wasn't the sharpest guy she'd ever met. She made her decision, and returned to Sango, Miroku, and Shippo an hour later.

“We'll seek Kouga out in the morning.” She said quietly. “...And burn the rest of that plant.”

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Inuyasha had sought refuge when the first symptom, headaches, followed by dizziness had settled in. By then he was almost halfway to his destination, when he stumbled into an abandoned hut on the outskirts of a long dead village. Bodies were strewn about the ground everywhere outside, and there was even one in the hut, but he couldn't find the energy to care. He curled into a ball on the ground as he felt his insides churning in an effort to get out of his body. Then the shaking and fever started, forming a growing puddle of sweat on the hard dirt floor. Trying to keep his mind off these things, he concentrated on his surroundings, his attention currently focused on the decapitated skull five feet away.

“Withdrawal's a bitch, ain't it?” The skull observed. The final symptom of going cold turkey off Lethe's Bramble had set in: hallucinations.

“All those nights with your noodles, eating, watching over your friends, lusting over that girl. Your body's used to having that crap in it all the time, and now that it can't have it, it's revolting.” The skull chattered on. “You're in the make or break stage now kid, you gonna be done in by a plant? It'd be fitting, a piece of halfblooded trash like you, pretending to himself that he's some kind of hero, thinking he's better than he is, getting killed by your friends.”

“S-shut up.” Inuyasha groaned shakily.

The skeleton just looked back with its cheeky grin. “Hey, I'm just an innocent part of a dead body here. This is all your broken brain working over time.”

“SHUT UP!” Inuyasha screamed, bringing a fist down on the skull, destroying that skeletal grin.

“Calm down Inuyasha, it's only a dream.” Kagome's airy voice reached him.

“Huh?” He looked around, confused. He was in Kagome's room, on her floor. “What happened?”

“You were having a nightmare by the looks of it. I had the hardest time waking you up.” Kagome took Inuyasha's hand and led him to the kitchen. “Have a seat, we can discuss it over some milk and cheese.”

“What?”

“Come on now, it's not a toy.” Inuyasha looked up to see a balding Kagome wearing glasses. “Come on, now. The cheese isn't going to hurt you.”

“That's it. I'm waking up.” Inuyasha stated.

The hellish night was over, Inuyasha stood, and cracked all the bones in his body. He stumbled as he started his run, but quickly caught himself. The faster he got to Mount Rishiri, the better. Something was coming, every instinct in his body was telling him so.

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He dragged himself to where he knew the wolf's den was located. He knew he shouldn't trust that Naraku character from last night, but after the demon was destroyed, his only remains being a piece of wood, the warrior had to appreciate this new gift; and the new powers it gave him. He felt tapped into everything, like he could take over the world. But he would settle for the den of the murderous wolves. It wouldn't be bad, using this evil power for a just cause. He was righting a great wrong in the world.

“Stop human! Identify yourself!” A wolf sentry called.

The man walked up to him, stopping before him and tilting his head curiously. “You want a name?” Seeing the wolf's nod he continued. “My name… That I made for myself… It no longer matters. You've seen to that. Now I'm just a Nameless Warrior.” He grabbed the wolf by the neck and burned him to ash from the inside out. “One down.”