InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Goodbye To Romance ❯ Wake Up The Sleeping Giant ( Chapter 10 )

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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Rin sang and skipped around in circles, keeping out of Jaken's reach. “Quiet down you stupid girl!” He half-heartedly swung the Staff of Two Heads at the playful girl. It had become a sort of a ritual for them. She'd be annoying, he'd try to stop her to get a moment's peace, and his lord would intervene on her behalf. Like clockwork. Jaken didn't know why he even bothered anymore.

 

“Jaken, Rin, be still.” Sesshoumaru's icy voice called out.

Jaken and Rin stopped in their tracks. This was different.

 

Sesshoumaru scented the wind and tried to sort through what his instincts were telling him. “Something is wrong here,” he murmured. “Jaken, take Rin and Ah-Un and get as far away as you can.”

 

“But, Lord-“ Jaken started to protest.

 

“Ssh, master Jaken. If Lord Sesshoumaru wants Jaken and Rin to leave, Jaken and Rin must leave.” The little girl interrupted, pulling the short imp over to the two-headed dragon. Immediately after they climbed on, Ah-Un took off to the sky, feeling some of the same wrongness that his master felt.

 

Sesshoumaru stared off into the forest, narrowing his eyes. “Show yourself.”

 

A lone figure made his way onto Sesshoumaru's path. He gave the dog-demon a quick once over and said tonelessly, “another filthy demon. You look like the last one I killed.”

 

“You will show this Sesshoumaru the proper respect, human, or face my wrath.”

 

“I've already given you more than you deserve by not killing you where you stand. You don't,” he snapped his head to the side quickly to avoid Sesshoumaru's energy whip. “Frighten me,” he continued. “Sent your servants and that little girl you're perverting away? That's smart. No matter though, I have people to handle that sort of thing. I bet that sweet young girl will be very relieved once she's been rescued from the likes of you.”

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. “You will not touch her.”

 

“I should be saying the same to you.” The man retorted. “That whip's a nice weapon. Want to see mine?” He withdrew the diamond from his cloak. “Care to guess what this does?”

 

“So it's you...” Sesshoumaru muttered. “You're a fool, you know not what you do.”

 

“I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm purifying the world of your kind. Purging it of a disease it has had for far too long.”

 

“You've confined a natural force for your own selfish ends. You're killing the world you wish to save.”

 

“Shut it,” an invisible force threw Sesshoumaru back. “I must do this for my people. I won't be swayed by your lies demon.”

 

Sesshoumaru flexed his claws, “well then, human, this Sesshoumaru is tiring of this small talk. Come at me.”

 

“I don't have the time to waste on you.” He said dismissively. “My pet may wish to play though.”

 

A giant dog formed out of the mist, and started prowling toward Sesshoumaru. He withdrew Tokujin and readied himself for battle. The human had disappeared. Sesshoumaru let out a long suffering sigh. It was going to be a long while until the next sunrise.

 

-----

 

`Smells like vinegar.' Inuyasha thought to himself. He had sniffed the map, trying to confirm what his dream was telling him. Sure enough, there it was, the distinct scent of vinegar. `Now why would paper smell like vinegar?'

 

He sat by the wall, concentrating on this new problem, watching over his sleeping charge. He gave the sleeping child a small smile. He didn't regret saving him from that village for a minute, even though he never had a high opinion of children to begin with, an opinion that only worsened by dealing with an annoying fox child. But this kid more than made up for Shippo.

 

He thought hard on what he associated the scent of vinegar with. The first thing that came to mind was food. Obviously he wasn't meant to eat the map, so he disregarded that notion. Second was medicine. Something tugged at his memory, but medicine didn't seem to make sense in the context of the map. The third was his mother. Suddenly he realized what he had to do. He walked over to Toshi and shook him awake. “Hey kid, wake up.”

 

Toshi opened his eyes and his tongue curled around his fangs as let out a big yawn. “What's going on?” He asked drowsily.

 

“We're leaving shortly, I just wanted to show you something.”

 

“Oh?” This made Toshio less sleepy immediately. Inuyasha always showed him the coolest stuff. He found the map thrust into his face with instructions to smell it. “It smells like vinegar,” Toshio said.

 

“Exactly. And do you know what vinegar's used for?” Inuyasha replied.

 

“Food.” Toshi instantly replied. “Ew! I'm not eating that!”

 

Inuyasha resisted the urge to bonk the kid on the head. “Yes, it's used for food. What else?”

 

Toshi thought for a moment. He couldn't think of another use for vinegar, so he decided to guess. “I dunno… Ink?” He braced himself for a tongue-lashing for being so stupid.

 

“That was a strange guess.” Inuyasha noted. “But you're exactly right.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Inuyasha brought him closer to the fire Toshi had built while Inuyasha was unconscious. “Let me tell you something about my mother. She was brilliant, and I'm not saying that just because she was my mother. She had a real gift with medicines. She could cure anything, even things that stumped miko. Those villagers never knew what they took from the world when they killed her…” Inuyasha trailed off, remembering. “Anyway, she wrote down all of her recipes, but she didn't want people to find them, so when she was done, all of her scrolls looked blank. Because she used vinegar as her ink.”

 

“What good would that do?” Toshi asked.

 

“There's a way to make it reappear, she showed me. Look,” Inuyasha brought the map closer to the fire, heating it, but not letting it ignite. After a few minutes markings started to appear on the map. “Whoever made this map must have been worried about it falling into the wrong hands, so they did the same thing.”

 

“Wow.” Toshi said, amazed. “What's it say?”

 

“It's directions on how to open up the cavern under the well. That's a relief, I didn't really feel like digging it up. Let's see, I have to go in under my own power, no outside help, magical or otherwise. So that means no fire rat armor, no stupid necklace, and no Tessaiga…” Inuyasha paused. “This thing better be worth it. Come on kid, hopefully this stupid little side quest ends today.”

 

------

 

Rin screamed and threw herself lower on Ah-Un's back as another undead raven swooped at her. It screeched as it flew overhead, just barely missing her. Rin looked on with concern as Jaken fought off one group, while another concerned itself with Ah-Un. Rin had been traveling with Sesshoumaru long enough to know when something was just inherently wrong, and these birds fit the bill. Not only were they half decayed, but somehow still flying, they were working together in a way that Rin had never seen ravens work before. Ah-Un let out a cry of anguish as one small part of the unkindness of ravens managed to injure one of his eyes. Rin gasped, and made her way to the front of her giant friend to comfort him, but this seemed to be the opportunity the unkindness was waiting for. Working as one, all of the ravens rushed Rin and knocked her off the two-headed dragon.

 

“Rin!” Jaken screeched, watching in horror, as the ravens plucked Rin from mid-air and roughly flew her away. His Lord Sesshoumaru was going to kill him!

 

----

 

Kouga groaned as the light hurt his eyes. “What…” he looked down at his completely healed wounds. “How long was I out?”

 

“About ten days,” Kaede answered him.

 

“Who are you old woman?”

 

“I am called Kaede. This hut is where Kagome and the others stay between shard hunts.”

 

“Kagome?” That one word entered Kouga's skull and nothing else mattered. “Where is she? I have to find her!”

 

“Calm yourself, wolf prince. My sister and I have some questions for you first.”

 

Kouga looked behind the old woman and noticed the other girl, “sister? She looks a few decades younger than you. Smells weird too.”

 

“Yes, well… All things in good time,” Kikyo brushed off Kouga's observations. “We've heard some stories about what's happened to you. I was hoping you could clear a few things up that don't quite make sense.”

 

The strange girl was making Kouga feel uneasy. “Uh... Sure. What do you want to know?”

 

“Well I heard that this man had Shikon shards,” at Kouga's nod Kikyo continued, “and that he was able to manipulate his surroundings with just his mind?”

 

“Yeah, that's right.” Kouga confirmed. “It was like he was using the power of the shards to do his bidding. Whatever he wanted.”

 

“That's what doesn't make sense. Even with the shards, it should take time and practice for that kind of control and ability. Yet, on his first time out he killed your entire pack with a thought. How is this possible? What is his connection to you or your pack?”

 

“There's no connection!” Kouga yelled. “He probably just practiced on some smaller demons before working his way up!”

 

Kikyo was unfazed by Kouga's outburst. “Not a chance. I have eyes everywhere. I would have heard, especially since this deals with the Shikon jewel.”

 

“You must have missed it!” Kouga protested.

 

“Me miss a human with several shards? It's laughable. Especially given the length of time he'd need to master them! No, these were recently obtained, and yet he's able to do this. They're feeding on something that allowed him to do this to you. Your pack were his first victims, and firsts are always important. Now I'm going to ask you again. What is your connection to this man?”

 

“I've told you, stupid woman! There is none!” Kouga huffed. “I've had enough of this, I'm finding Kagome!”

 

Kouga brushed passed Kikyo roughly. She called out, “I'll find out what you're trying to hide!”

 

Kikyo turned to her younger sister, “I just hope his secrecy doesn't kill us all first.”

 

Kaede knew what Kikyo meant. Kouga was many things, but a good liar wasn't one of them, “Indeed.” Then a sensation prickled in her brain, “did you feel that?”

 

Kikyo looked toward the direction of the well, “Inuyasha.”

 

------

 

Inuyasha and Toshi made it to the well. Inuyasha turned to the younger hanyou. “Listen kid, those humans we ran into earlier are probably on their way as we speak. I don't want to have to deal with them or have them know what I'm doing here. I need to head that way” he pointed to the woods behind Toshi, “head them off and distract them. Whatever you do don't let them get to this clearing, they might fuck everything up. Got it?” At Toshi's nod he threw his hoari on the ground. Then he drove Tessaiga through it. As an after thought he hanged the rosary that had been used to subdue him so many times on Tessaiga's handle. “Time to knock and see who answers,” he muttered to himself, sitting down on the ground and starting the ritual written on the map. A golden light enveloped Inuyasha and he vanished from sight. Toshi could hear the humans in the distance and ran off to head them off at the pass.

 

------

 

`Huh. That was easy.' Inuyasha thought to himself.

 

“Hello young man!”

 

The half demon started at the sudden sound, and spun around to find a familiar looking man. “You again? I thought you were stuck in the volcano.”

 

The old man let out a small chuckle. “Volcano? Young man, you must be thinking of my twin brother. Now, I know exactly what you're doing here, the weapon you seek is just around the corner waiting for you.”

 

“What? It's just waiting for me? No fighting or booby traps? No catch?” Inuyasha asked, startled.

 

“No, no. Nothing like that. The map was enough. You see, we want you to get this weapon. There's no need of all that booby trap, prove yourself worthy nonsense. You are already worthy, otherwise you wouldn't be fated to be here. We just needed to be tricky enough to keep this out of the wrong hands, not to keep it out of yours.” The old man led Inuyasha through the twisting corridors as he spoke. “I'm sure my brother told you a little of what's going on, let me fill in some gaps. It's been an awfully long time since I've talked to anyone. You might say this very moment is the very definition of my countless years of existence. Once it's over, so am I. It's a big moment for you too. Everything that's happened in your life, from your mother's death to that future girl waking you up was predetermined and out of your control. The makers really had to pull some creative strings for you. Once you have that sword, you finally get to live your own life, just like everyone else.”

 

“How much further is it? You're starting to bore me!' Inuyasha complained.

 

“Yes, I know you're eager to get back to hunting that which has harmed you. Nasty business with that tree… Now where was I? Oh yes. There are certain rules to the universe. Free will exists. That's what the makers wanted. Good and evil must balance. This applies to humans as well as demons, which is why bad things happen to good people and vice versa, it may seem unfair, but that's how the world has to work. A price for all things. But the big rule. The unwavering, most important, completely unbreakable one is that all things must die.” They stopped in a huge room, with a huge steel door at one end, and a sword stuck in stone directly in the center. “Your Naraku has not only heavily skewed the balance, but his schemes have led to the circumvention of the big one.”

 

Finally the two of them arrived at the sword. Inuyasha reached for it, when the man's dry and gnarled hand grabbed his wrist. “Wait, before you touch that, indulge an old man for a moment, will you? It's been so long since I've had contact with anything.”

 

“Keh, hurry it up, old man, I don't got all day.”

 

“This sword is special. Everything that has ever died comes through this room, and goes through that door,” he indicated the steel door at the end of the room. A huge bang echoed throughout the room. “It's been touched by every soul that's ever died. Much like that amulet you wear. That's what gives it power. It's a force that nothing, not even the Guardian can defeat. It can even destroy the diamond that has captured the Guardian, which is what this is really all about. The abuse of our most basic agent of balancing the world has affected the other agents. Especially the one that separates the dead from the living. Souls of the dead are finding their way around it, hence the banging you keep hearing. Most things that die, don't want to stay dead, and now that there's a way for them to regain their life… It'll lead to a massive war between the living and the dead that will end the world. But no pressure.”

 

“So, can this sword do anything special, besides stop that Guardian?”

 

“I'm glad you asked. It's identical to your Tessaiga in every way. Except for a few things. The materials it's made of, for one. There was no way we'd be able to steal yours or your father's fangs. And it will always stay sharp, even when you're human. That way, you're still protected. And when you take it you may experience some strange sensations, though what those will be, I couldn't begin to tell you.” The banging became more insistent, so the old man continued, “I've taken up enough of your time. Good luck Inuyasha.” He left Inuyasha alone with the sword.

 

Inuyasha reached for the sword. The banging became louder, he could see the door shaking under the pressure. He pulled the sword out and was overcome with visions.

 

It was mass panic as wolves tore the village apart. A woman cried out for her children, only to be pounced upon.

 

~~~~~~

 

Finally, the warrior made it to his village. But something was wrong. Where were all the people? Why were all the huts deserted and uncared for? He explored the village until he found the mass grave site.

 

“What happened here?” He gasped.

 

“Wolves.” A silky voice cut through the night. The warrior turned and found a man dressed in a baboon cloak. “Demon 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.”

 

~~~~~~

 

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.

 

~~~~~~

 

Ginta gasped for air and struggled to talk. “It was… That village.” He coughed some blood. “There was a survivor… He had jewel shards. He did this… He's coming Kouga. The things he did…”

 

Kouga gently shook Ginta. “Stay with me, Ginta. What did he do?”

 

“I've seen some terrible things… I've caused most of them…” Ginta stared blankly for a moment then continued. “He's a telepath. He can make fire out of nothing… Even now, he's keeping me alive… He's almost a god and he's going to hunt you down, Kouga. You need to watch out, don't underestimate him.”

 

~~~~~~~

 

“Here's the secret to the origin of this land… This diamond. It was designed to capture and control that guardian. Nobody was going to stand up to someone who could control that.”

 

The Nameless Warrior just snorted. “If this diamond is so powerful, why don't you use it?”

 

“Because I'm not human. Besides, I have no use for a servant whose purpose is to hunt me down and kill me. But if you're serious about ridding the world of demons, this will come in handy.” Naraku explained.

 

“Thank you.”

 

~~~~~~~

 

“Such an immature leader. Going off for days on end, leaving your troops, the people who look to you for guidance and protection, alone for months on end. Sending them to attack defenseless, peaceful villages for your own sick entertainment.”

 

-------

 

Inuyasha shook the images that had bombarded him out of his head. `Kouga, you stupid son of a bitch.' He thought nastily. He started mocking Kagome, “he's a good guy Inuyasha! You'll just have to clean up for him after he ends the fucking world!”

 

He bent down and picked up the sword with a bitter sigh. The banging became more frequent and increased in volume. He looked over at the door and saw bulges forming. Finally, the door seemed to fold in half and flew toward his head. He dove for cover and he quickly got to his feet, seeing two figures emerge from the door. He blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. This couldn't be…

 

“Mother? Father?” He asked, stunned with amazement.