InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Goodbye To Romance ❯ Break The Chain Then We Break Down ( Chapter 6 )

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.

 

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After about twenty minutes of walking, Inuyasha was satisfied that he'd carried the hanyou child a safe distance from the village. Finding a good spot to set up camp, he set the kid down and pondered what to do with him as he collected firewood. The child watched with big, curious eyes as the elder hanyou set about making a fire. He took the opportunity to stand and stretch his legs. He stumbled over to Inuyasha, intending to help with the firewood collection, but fell after the first few steps.

 

The elder hanyou shook his head in disbelief, finally speaking for the first time since they left the village. “Stay down kid. Those damn humans had you chained in that room for so long your body's forgotten how to use your muscles to walk.” Inuyasha watched with amusement as the child immediately put a stubborn look on his face and raised himself to his feet, taking a few more wobbly steps, then becoming more sure of his footing. Soon, he was walking normally again, though by then the fire was blazing.

 

“You got a name kid?” Inuyasha asked.

 

“I don't remember…” the child mumbled. His dog ears hid in his hair. “I think… Toshi? That seems familiar.”

 

Inuyasha studied the boy, who was stretching and performing movements the young hanyou hadn't been able to do for years. “Well Toshi, I'm not sure what to do with you. I do know there's no way I'm leaving you alone to fend for yourself, but keeping you with me wouldn't be much better for you, health-wise. There's a human village, where you'd probably be safe. I wouldn't trust anybody there as far as you could throw them, but they're used to demons… You wouldn't have any friends, but they wouldn't hurt you.”

 

Toshi shook his head vigorously. “No… No humans.”

 

“Or you could stay with me. And I won't lie, it'll be dangerous and unpleasant as hell. What I do… It's nothing for a child to be involved in. It'll probably lead you to an early grave. But you won't be alone. You'll also have to pull your own weight. I've had enough of free-loading children to last a lifetime.” The child looked a little panicked at this, so Inuyasha continued. “I don't mean right away. Your body has to get used to moving again, and I probably have to teach you the things you'll need to do. Now, listen to me, because this is important. When I tell you to do something, do it. It's for your own good, even if you don't know it at the time. If I feel you're being overly disobedient or you start to become dead weight, I will drop you off at that village I mentioned earlier. Understand?”

 

The child nodded. “I'm hungry.”

 

“Then it's time to teach you how to hunt.” Inuyasha swept the kid into his arms and carried him off into the night. “Until I get you physically trained more, you'll be stuck just watching.”

 

Inuyasha hoped he knew what he was doing.

 

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Crack.

 

A curious squirrel scampered out of its tree, investigating the strange noises that had been coming from the ground for the past few hours.

 

CRack. It was getting louder. The squirrel cautiously ventured closer to the spot where the disturbance was coming from.

 

CRACK. The squirrel, listening to its instincts, instantly ran for the safety of its tree, watching from afar. A bloody hand had come through the ground moments ago, then quickly disappeared. “Finally!” A voice bellowed from below.

 

Kouga looked up at the faint light that was bursting through the fist sized hole he had made. Judging by the colour of the sky, it was either just before sunset, or sunrise, he couldn't be sure. He couldn't help but let out the whoop of victory after he saw the hole he had spent hours punching and scratching to make.

 

“Take that, guilt-induced illusions!” He boasted as he jumped up to the hole, grabbing with both hands and feverishly scraping and scrabbling in an attempt to increase its size. Finally, he was able to crawl out of the cave that was to be his tomb. Finally rid of the danger of suffocation and those visions, he collapsed and let himself relax under the bright moon. Tomorrow he would go to Kagome and her friends and tell them of this new threat. Not only did he destroy Kouga's pack, but he seemed to be after shards, which put Kagome in danger.

 

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Kagome collapsed into her bed. It had been a hard couple of days back in her time. Not only was there the obligatory homework and tests, she had to deal with the issue that had been dangling over her head for days; Inuyasha's discovery of their Lethe's Bramble, and its fallout. Kagome had decided to go to her mother first, for some comfort and advice, but had gotten her ear nearly yelled off. She had made her sweet, calm, and understanding mother so angry that she'd actually gotten yelled at. Kagome shuddered at the memory.

 

“What on Earth were you thinking?” Her mother had raged. “Were you even thinking?”

 

Kagome opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off. “I don't want to hear it! I am very disappointed in you Kagome Higurashi. I thought I'd raised you better than that! To think that you'd do that to such a close friend, it's… I can't even say it, I'm so… There are words, but saying them would be unladylike! You'd better go right back and fix it!” Kagome's mother glared at her sobbing daughter.

 

“Don't you think I want that more than anything?” Kagome sobbed. “But if he doesn't want to be found, there's no chance of that happening!”

 

“Well, giving up sure isn't going to help make it better!”

 

“Neither is you yelling at me and making me feel even worse!” Kagome snapped back. “I've already told myself the same things you have! Hundreds of times. You don't know what it was like… You didn't know him then, like he was… Other than that one time he came to get me, you've never seen him not drugged up. He was brutal, he was mean, and maybe it was underhanded, but the herb mellowed him out! Enough so that he stopped hating me and everything around him enough to let people in. I had just stumbled into this whole new world I didn't know existed before, I didn't know how to take care of myself, I was thrown into a quest where the fate of the world rested on me, and all I had for protection and companionship was a scary and out of control half-demon! So right or wrong I took what measures had to be taken.”

 

“You played God and messed with his brain!” Kagome's mother snarled.

 

“I gave him demon Ritalin.” Kagome defended herself.

 

“But, Kagome, you stop giving medicine when symptoms go away! You can't convince me that he needed it for more than a couple of weeks after how sweet he was to your brother and I.”

 

“You're right,” Kagome conceded. “He didn't need it for very long. I let my fears of what he was, and my little power trip get in the way of doing what was right. And because of that, everything he did to improve as a person was wiped away in a few minutes. All because I wanted fewer headaches when dealing with him.”

 

“And now you're leaving it to me to tell an eight year old that the man he looks up to, his hero, is never coming back. That he'll never see him again. I certainly hope this was all worth it.” Her mother scolded as she left the room.

 

Kagome looked at the floor. “It wasn't,” she muttered to herself.

 

A tear rolled down Kagome's cheek at the memory. That had been the hardest part, telling her mother. Then the next day at school her friends demanded new gossip on her `two timing jerk boyfriend.' So she then had to make up a story about how she finally drove him away. One that didn't involve demons, or herbs, or any of the other crazy things that dominated her life for the past while.

 

`I should go back tomorrow. Forget Kouga and the shards. Nothing matters until things are right with Inuyasha. Even if I have to walk across all of Japan to make it happen.'

 

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Inuyasha was in a considerably better mood after a good meal. The fact that the kid had actually done as he was told, and seemed eager to learn didn't hurt things either. Currently Inuyasha was perched on a tree branch watching Toshi practice the moves he'd watched Inuyasha perform on the wild pig he'd caught. The tiny hanyou had started clumsily at first, but he was quickly improving. He was nowhere near ready to take one down by himself, but he wasn't doing too badly for someone who'd just spent half his life chained to a wall.

 

Inuyasha decided that too much activity wouldn't be good for the kid, who he figured was looking at a few days filled with sore muscles already. He called out “Oi! That's enough for tonight!” Toshi looked at him, his head tilted to the side, as if to ask why his training was suddenly coming to an end. “All this activity isn't good for you after being cooped up for so long. We can continue tomorrow.”

 

Toshi nodded, and climbed the tree to a branch closer to the elder hanyou. “Where are we going?” He asked.

 

“Mount Rishiri. Know what that is?” Seeing the child shake his head no, Inuyasha continued. “It's a volcano. It's no longer active, but there's something inside that I have to get.”

 

“What?” The child asked curiously.

 

“I'm not sure.” Inuyasha admitted. “But it's important.”

 

“Why?”

 

“My instincts are telling me, that's why. Now go to sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us.”

 

Inuyasha awoke at the crack of dawn, and after making sure the surrounding area was safe enough to leave the kid alone for a few minutes, he went off to catch some fish. He used this time to plan how he was going to train Toshi today. He could have Toshi simply repeat the moves he'd been doing last night, but didn't think it would be useful for Toshi to know how to take down game before he knew how to track it. Looking at all the fish he managed to catch flopping in the sand, he decided the next course of action.

 

Toshi awoke to the scent of cooking fish. He blinked sleepily, and slid off the branch he was on, landing gracefully on his feet. Inuyasha gave a small smile, seeing how quickly Toshi was regaining his natural strength and agility. Passing a couple of cooked fish to Toshi, he commanded, “eat. Then you're training for a few hours. I don't know what we'll encounter in that cave, but I want you to at least be able to get out of harm's way.”

 

“When will we get to Mount Rishiri?” Toshi asked.

 

“Tonight, I hope.” Inuyasha replied.

 

A couple of hours later, Inuyasha was finishing up his training session with Toshi. He had been doing some basic strikes and slashes, which Toshi had been dodging admirably, after a few missteps in the beginning. Inuyasha decided to change up his routine, and with a feint and a grab, ended things. He lifted Toshi by the back of his neck and brought him to eye level.

 

“You just died.” He said.

 

“That wasn't fair! You weren't doing that before!” Toshi whined.

 

“Tough.” Inuyasha dropped Toshi roughly on his behind. He looked down at his new charge and started to lecture. “I once knew someone, she wasn't from around here, who had the strangest sayings for anything. One of them was `fish out of water.' Care to guess what that meant?” Toshi shook his head, and Inuyasha continued. “To be a fish out of water meant that you were confused. You were out of your element. Unable to adapt to new situations. The thing is, fish out of water don't become confused. They become dead. It doesn't matter how fast you are, how strong, or even how good you are at fighting. Nothing matters if you can't adapt to small changes, like the ones I threw at you at the end of that sparring session. You want to survive in this world? Learn to be prepared for anything, learn to improvise. That's it for today.”

 

Toshio stood, “does this mean we're leaving?”

 

Inuyasha started to walk off. “Yeah. So hurry up.”

 

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Kagome entered Kaede's hut, surprising the occupants. “Kagome! You're early,” Sango exclaimed.

 

“Yeah. I couldn't deal with things at home.” Kagome responded.

 

“I take it your family didn't take the news of Inuyasha's departure well,” Miroku said.

 

“That's an understatement. So is there any word on Inuyasha?”

 

Sango and Miroku exchanged looks, Sango decided to break the news. “Yes. It's not good though. Myoga ran into him about a day after he left us.”

 

“That's great! He didn't die from withdrawal!” Kagome clapped cheerfully. Seeing her friends' expressions, she calmed down, “that's not great?”

 

“He dismissed Myoga.” Miroku continued the tale. “Myoga went to him to report possible shard activity, but after he told Inuyasha of the rumor, Inuyasha figured out that he was in on our scheme.”

 

“That's terrible! What's Myoga going to do now?” Kagome asked.

 

“He told me of the village's location, and left for Totosai's. That's not all though.” Miroku and Sango stood, “come with us, there's more. Kouga stumbled in last night.” They led Kagome to a room off to the side, where Kaede put the horribly injured demon to recover. Sango continued, “It seems Naraku's created a new threat. He was able to kill off the rest of Kouga's pack, and almost succeeded in killing Kouga himself.”

 

Kagome gasped at the sight of the broken wolf in front of her. Blood oozed from his bandaged hands and shins. Miroku explained grimly. “Kaede had to give him herbs to knock him out. Apparently, Naraku gave corrupted shards to a human who held a deep hatred for demons. He attacked the wolf pack while Kouga was away, lured Kouga into a cave, and stole his jewel shards. Kouga had to claw his way out through the ceiling. Kaede can't even guess when Kouga will be well enough to do any shard hunting.”

 

“In any event, it'll be way too long to wait if we want to find Inuyasha at that village.” Sango finished. “We can either wait for Kouga to recover and leave then, or leave now and take the chance that we'll get killed getting a shard.”

 

“I'd rather go now.” Kagome said. “I can't live with the way things are between us and Inuyasha.”

 

“Agreed.” Miroku and Sango said.

 

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Inuyasha and Toshi stood at the summit of Mount Rishiri. Inuyasha looked at his little sidekick, “remember Toshi, we don't know what's in there. Stick close to me, and be ready for anything. If anything happens, get the hell out of there. I'll be fine.”

 

Toshi nodded, and Inuyasha picked him up into his arms, jumping down into the mouth of the inactive volcano.