InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Guilty Hero ❯ Broken Promises ( Chapter 2 )

 

 

In this chapter we find out a little more about Inu-Yasha's past, and in particular, his `dark day'…

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha

Guilty Hero

Chapter 2: Broken Promises

It had been two days since his scuffle with the spider demon, but Inu-Yasha was still irritated. He did not take kindly to being criticized, particularly when he had even obtained a Shikon shard for the Order. He had done the job expected of him—what more did they want? And, to increase his frustration, the wounds he had received were still just as painful as they had been two days ago.

That morning, awoken by the sun shining directly into his eyes, Inu-Yasha groaned, meeting the day in a world of pain. The punctures wounds had split open, he had jostled his broken arm during sleep, and his entire body was stiff and sore from the poison still flowing in his veins. Adding to the unpleasantness, a headache pounded fiercely from his nightly over-indulgence of liquor.

“Damn it all…” he muttered, tugging the covers off. Slowly, he forced his tight muscles to work as he sat up and swung his legs off the bed. Sitting still for a moment, he kept his eyes shut as his head adjusted to the change. Great; not only did he ache all over, but he was woozy, too, caused by the poison or the drink; he didn't know which.

After a few minutes, he carefully stood and stumbled blindly out of the room, remembering to open his eyes only when he ran into a wall and jostled his broken arm again. Cursing under his breath, he made his way to the kitchen and flipped the light on, staggering back a couple of steps at the barrage of light on his eyes. The light made his headache worsen tenfold, so he stayed huddled in the dark living room until the throbbing ceased and he could face the brightness.

He needed relief from the pain, if only for a while, so he had to make a choice. He could start the day with a fresh brewed pot of coffee, perfect for dispelling the fog in his brain and easing the ache in his limbs with its warmth. Or he could opt for a tumbler of whiskey as a chaser from the night before, giving fast relief to his headache and pulling a haze over all his senses, dulling all the pain and making his disposition too mellow to care.

The decision wasn't a difficult one to make. He was just about to reach for the quarter-full whiskey bottle on the table when the harsh clanging of the telephone assaulted his ears, making him cringe and grab the tabletop for support. Glaring at the offending phone through heavily-lidded eyes, he shuffled into the living room and snatched the phone up.

“…This'd better be good…” he growled into the receiver, his voice still thick with sleep.

“Possibly,” came Sango's voice from the other end. “We have a new assignment for you, if your wounds have healed enough.”

The word `assignment' cut through the fog, and he blinked slowly, straightening a bit. “A new assignment?” he repeated. “Already? The last one was only two days ago.”

“Yes. But a situation has come up, and we believe that you are the best man for the job. Will you accept it?” Sango was sounding strangely aloof and distant.

“But…” Inu-Yasha rubbed his face, trying to force his mind into action. “So soon…”

“Look…” Suddenly, Sango's tone changed, growing much more familiar, though still quite serious. “As your commanding officer, I shouldn't be telling you this. So I'm going to tell you as your friend: you're on thin ice with the Order right now. They can't continue to put you to work if you keep drinking on the job; it's unsafe and foolish.”

Inu-Yasha flopped onto his couch, scowling in disgust. The day was going from bad to worse. “I've had enough lectures from the two of you to last me a lifetime…” he mumbled.

“Don't you get it, you oaf?!” snapped Sango from the other end. “I'm trying to save your butt, here! Your job is on the line! The Order is using this next assignment as your final test—if you don't do an exemplary performance, you're out!”

He was quiet for a moment. “…Out?” he murmured in disbelief.

“Yes. Out. I know how much this job means to you, but even I can't keep you on if the number one wants you gone. That's why it's so important that you do well this time around. If you can handle two assignments so close together, and perform them well enough, you prove to the Order that you still have power to help our cause.”

No longer near as groggy as he had been minutes ago, Inu-Yasha thought hard, idly tapping his claws on the side table. “So… I do well on this next assignment, an' you all get off my back?”

“Exactly. Show up sober, keep the fight short and the area as clean and undamaged as possible, and you're probably set for another few months without any harassment.” That wasn't the point of the mission, but Sango knew that it was all Inu-Yasha cared about, so she kept with it. “Think you can handle it?”

At any other time, Inu-Yasha knew he could. But right now, with a broken arm, two gaping holes in his neck, and a debilitating poison mixed with his blood, he wasn't so sure. However, with his job on the line, he knew he had no choice. “'Course I can,” he snapped, as though angry at her for even questioning his abilities. “What's the assignment?”

He swore he heard a small sigh of relief from the other end. “An informant has told us of several recent murders by the docks near Atlantic Ave. All the victims are found as mere skeletons, with only their heads whole. Judging from the teeth marks on the bones, we assume these people have been eaten, and by the same creature. We're fairly certain it's only a minor demon that has gained a good deal of power, and fairly quickly.”

“Meaning a jewel shard might be involved,” Inu-Yasha interrupted with irritation dripping from every word.

“Right. We'd like this taken care of as quickly as possible, all right?”

“Fine, fine. I'll see what I can do.” With a final snarl, Inu-Yasha slammed the phone back in its cradle. “Damn it all…” he muttered once again. There went the hope of his morning whiskey. Sighing heavily, he trudged back into the kitchen to put a pot of coffee on.

Back at the Order's headquarters, Sango slowly hung up the phone, then turned to look guiltily at Miroku, who had been listening intently to her half of the conversation behind her chair. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” she asked quietly. “I hate tricking him… What is he going to do when he realizes that the `minor demon' is actually a human with a jewel shard? You know he can't kill humans! Not after what happened with Kikyo… It'll break him if he has to kill one!”

Miroku rubbed the back of his head, just as concerned as Sango at their deception. “I know it's wrong of us to ask him to do this…” he sighed. “But he's the only one I'd trust with this assignment. These senseless murders must stop, but that doesn't mean we must kill this human shard-bearer. We simply need to retrieve the shard from him. Inu-Yasha's desperate vow never to kill humans will hopefully help him find a way to save this one.”

Leaning back in her chair, Sango studied Miroku carefully. “Do you really trust him, though? That lush could barely beat that low-level spider; can he really handle such a delicate operation?”

Affronted, Miroku chastised, “Sango, you are talking about the man who slayed Naraku. If he destroyed the mightiest demon in the world, surely he can handle a mere human with a slight boost of power.”

Sango rolled her eyes. “You sound like a blind admirer, unable to accept the fact that Inu-Yasha isn't the same person he was seven years ago.”

Miroku shrugged. “I just try to keep my faith in him, Sango. This is his chance to prove himself…”

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Due to its shady and questionable nature, the Order did its best to remain out from under the public eye. It worked directly with the local police in the city where its headquarters was located, but also with the government, so all of its actions were legal and approved. However, it was a secret society, and had to be relatively unknown to the public, so it requested its agents to work under the cover of darkness as much as possible. The less people knew, the better everything would be.

It was this reason, which had been hammered into his head during his ten years of service to the Order, that Inu-Yasha waited until nightfall before stepping out of his apartment to perform his latest assignment. Because he knew that his performance this time around would mean whether or not he had a job by daybreak, he had stayed completely sober all day, not wanting to jeopardize his chances of survival by messing himself up with drink. However, lack of liquor in his system had left him in a foul mood, and he was quite eager for the task to be done with.

He took one last drag of his cigarette, casually glancing up and down the street as he did so. Seeing that there wasn't a soul around, he flicked his cigarette to the ground, stubbed it out with his dirty sneaker, and then leapt onto the roof of the apartment building, landing a bit off-balance due to his broken arm. He preferred traveling by rooftop; not only was it more discreet, but it was far faster than trying to make it through the city streets by foot. Nimbly leaping from roof to roof with only a soft thump with each landing, he reached his destination quickly, though not as fast he normally would have made it. The poison in his blood was slowing him down quite a bit.

Atlantic Avenue led directly to the city docks; an area of town not visited by sightseers or everyday citizens. It was a dingy place, reeking of fish and covered with the garbage of the dockworkers. Crates were piled everywhere that needed to be shipped out, leaving many places for stowaways or criminals to hide. Seeing all this, Inu-Yasha knew he would have to rely on his nose to scrounge up the weak demon his was searching for.

Keeping his senses alert, he sniffed deeply and tried not to gag as rotting fish filled his nostrils. But one stench proved even more overpowering than decaying sea creatures—the scent of a fresh corpse. Easily honing in on the smell, which led him to a sloppily sealed crate, he awkwardly tore the side off with his left hand and was greeted by the sight of a pile of human bones with a fully intact head rolling about the floor.

“Urgh…” He couldn't help but groan in disgust. It was the one trait of full demons he had never envied—the taste of human flesh. How a monster could actually devour someone in cold blood was beyond him.

Shaking off his initial reaction, he sniffed at the gnawed bones, trying to capture the scent of the creature he was supposed to find. However, much to his confusion, he could only decipher the scent of a human. Or rather—he sniffed again, even more puzzled. The scent of two humans was covering the bones. One odor was the owner of the bones, but the other…

Suddenly, Inu-Yasha's eyes narrowed and he whirled around, unsheathing his claws and tearing open a nearby crate. Bones spilled out of this one as well, and his nose confirmed his suspicions; once again, there were two scents. One belonged to the bones, and the other was the same as the odd scent in the first crate.

He uncovered the skeletons of five more humans in different crates, and all gave him the same story. With such evidence, he was forced to come to a conclusion that shook him to his core; these skeletons were the handiwork of a human.

“Damn it!” he cursed, throwing his fist into the nearest crate. Humans who obtained Shikon shards rarely were able to survive the sudden surge of power. Once their bodies began to transform, there was no going back. It would only be too kind of Inu-Yasha to end the man's existence himself, rather than allowing him to torture himself to death with the jewel's power. He could already tell from the mangled bones that the human's body had morphed; no normal man could strip the flesh so cleanly from the bones. His only hope was that the transformation wasn't so drastic that salvation wasn't impossible. However, that possibility was highly unlikely.

Slumping to the rocky ground, he took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. Fury and hatred were welling up in his breast; fury and hatred directed at Sango and Miroku. How dare they? How dare they send him after a human? They knew his solemn vow; after being forced to kill his own fiancé, he swore his claws would never be stained with human blood again. And yet, Sango and Miroku had tossed him into an inescapable situation. He must either break his own vow, or allow the cannibalistic murderer to roam free.

Inu-Yasha didn't know if he could even do it. Killing humans was a line that he refused to cross. After killing Kikyo, his mind could barely handle the thought of killing another; the thought literally brought him to his knees. He stared at the pile of bones and the bug-eyed head in the crate, sweat dripping down his nose as horrible images of that dark day flashed before his eyes. He could practically feel her warm blood seeping over his claws as he tore into her exposed back. It hurt them both; it was torturing…

He suddenly gasped, blinking as the images disappeared. He couldn't lose control now, not with his job, the only semblance of a life he still had, at stake. Slowly standing, he reached a shaky hand into the back pocket of his jeans and tugged out a flask. After swallowing a liberal mouthful, he savored the calming effect for a moment before returning it to his pocket and refocusing his attention on the crates.

No longer studying the bones but the actual crates themselves, he soon discovered that all of the crates had been stored in the same warehouse, warehouse number 1514. Realizing that it was more than likely the human was hiding out in the warehouse, devouring the workers, then dumping their bodies in crates, Inu-Yasha took off out of the stockyard, in search of warehouse 1514.

The closer he got to the warehouses, the more enraged he grew, for as he thought, he realized that Sango and Miroku had blatantly lied and tricked him. Not only did he not like being played the fool, but to be tricked by his only two friends in the godforsaken world, by the only two people he trusted enough to share his darkest fears with…

An enraged snarl ripped from his lips as he sprang forward into a run. The sooner his finished the job, the sooner Sango and Miroku could feel the pain of their betrayal. His gait was slightly off-balance from his broken arm, but his anger pushed him onwards. Even the draining weakness of the poison seemed to be cast aside as he followed his nose to the warehouse lot.

However, coming upon an enormous sea of warehouses, it took him several minutes to find 1514, despite his rage-fueled energy, and by the time he finally did see it, he was breathing heavily and trembling, both from anger and fatigue. His golden eyes flicked about the room as he stepped onto the concrete floor; his nose told him there was no doubt the killer was here.

“Show yourself,” he growled, the claws of his left hand ready to strike as he peered into the deep black shadows cast be crates and equipment.

“Heh heh heh…” The eerie chuckle came from the middle of the room. “For once, a meal has come looking for me! And a demon, no less!” There was a rustling in the shadows, and then an absolutely enormous man emerged into the puddle of moonlight by the loading doors where Inu-Yasha stood, as tall and wide as the forklift that sat nearby. Taller than Inu-Yasha by at least two feet, he towered over the demon, his corpulent belly and monstrous size posing an impressive figure. However, despite the fact of how gaunt and pathetic he looked compared to this well-fed human, Inu-Yasha knew it would be an easy kill.

The man's eyes glowed slightly as he stared down at Inu-Yasha. “How scrawny you are! Aren't you a demon? Why don't you indulge in the tasty human flesh of those weaker than yourself?”

“Humans are repulsive,” Inu-Yasha snapped. “But you in particular…”

The man laughed again, his gigantic belly bouncing and his mouth wide open, giving Inu-Yasha a clear view of the vicious fangs that had replaced his human dentures. Those appendages explained how cleanly the flesh had been torn off the corpses of the dead dockworkers. With his gorged size and replaced teeth, Inu-Yasha could tell that the human's transformation was beyond saving. His last hope was crushed; his vow would have to be broken.

“I bet you're wondering why I'm so different than those other `repulsive' humans out there,” the man said conversationally, obviously playing with his prey before attacking.

“I already know!” Inu-Yasha interrupting, almost panicking. He wanted to keep the human from spilling his life story; knowing more about this man would make killing him all the harder. “That jewel shard you picked up has turned you into a monster. I'm going to do you and all the other people in the city a favor by putting you out of your misery.” The threat had no strength behind it—he clearly did not want to take a life.

“What can a wounded demon such as yourself do to me?!” the man roared cockily. “Not even bullets can pierce my skin!”

Inu-Yasha licked his lips, which had become very dry. This was an easy kill, and he knew it. However, he couldn't keep himself from shaking as an image of his beloved Kikyo constantly flickered before his eyes as he readied his left hand, baring his viciously sharp claws. The image of her was staring furiously at him, her dark eyes flashing as they bored into him, keeping his attention locked on her as demons and humans battled all around, the din dreadful and the air filled with smoke.

Slowly, his gaze slid to the gun she had clutched in her fingers, pointed directly at his chest without trepidation. He looked at her enraged face once again, an expression of anguish written all over his own. Wind from the surrounding battles whipped her long hair about, making her an even more impressive figure. Inu-Yasha's heart and resolve was failing him as he stared at his fiancé, pleading for her to stop.

“You FOOL!” she cried furiously. “Narkau will lead the demons to the top of the world where they deserve to be! Why do you resist?! I have tried for so long to convince you to embrace your demon half, but you have chosen your place at the bottom of the hierarchy!”

“Kikyo, don't listen to those lies Naraku feeds you!” he begged, taking a step closer to her. “Please, come back to the Order! We need you! I need you!”

“Never!” she snarled back. “Naraku has promised absolute power and more! I will not turn that offer down! How can you?! Why won't you join us?!”

“I won't allow the humans of this city to be slaughtered, Kikyo! There are good people in this godforsaken world! You were the one who taught me that! You were the one who showed me how to find true friends here! I can't walk away from that!”

“Then you seal your fate. I cannot deny I taught you such foolishness, but I myself was blinded by those weak hopes and dreams. Naraku has showed me the truth! You have made your choice, Inu-Yasha, and I have made mine.”

“Please, Kikyo, no! Please!” Inu-Yasha wailed. “Don't make me do this!”

“Die, as a traitor to your own kind!” Kikyo's bullet sounded abnormally loud to Inu-Yasha's ears as the sounds of the battle surrounding him faded away, until the shot of the gun was the only noise to be heard. He grunted in pain as blood exploded from his chest and the bullet dug into his flesh. His vision began to blur from the hurt, but he kept his eyes locked on her as she turned, leaving him for dead and running to join in the rest of the battle.

He knew his orders, given by the number one of the Order, Kaede herself. If Kikyo was to join with Naraku during the bloody battle, her holy powers combined with his demonic ones could level the city. He had to stop her at all costs. Tears streaming down his dirt-stained cheeks, he leapt forward at her open back, claws bared—

The bloodcurdling scream from the over-gorged human jolted Inu-Yasha back to his senses. He realized that he had leapt at the man with his claws while reliving that awful day, running straight through his belly before the human even had a chance to react. Grimacing as blood covered his arm and stomach acid burned his hand, he jerked his hand free of the flabby mass. However, the human continued to writhe in agony, each skin-crawling scream tearing into Inu-Yasha's chest like a knife. Biting his lip, he stepped forward and thrust his claws through the man's heart, and instantly the cries ceased.

Silence rang in Inu-Yasha's ears as he stared at the bloody monster, his breath coming in short, shallow gasps. Wondering why his vision was so blurry, he wiped his eyes and realized that tears had been obscuring his vision. Able to see properly, he gazed down at the enormous body with the gaping holes in the stomach and chest; his handiwork. Moaning suddenly as his stomach began to churn, he leaned heavily against the forklift and vomited on the concrete floor, heaving again and again until his stomach was empty.

Shaking and sweaty, barely in control of himself, he glanced hesitantly at the corpse. He needed to retrieve the Shikon shard hidden about the man's person before he could leave. If he left it there, some other human could come upon it, or another demon could sniff it out. Unwillingly, he sniffed about the body, having to pause once to heave up a mouthful of bile once again, before he caught the scent of the tiny shard inside the man's stomach. With a bit of difficulty, for his hand was trembling terribly, he pulled the shard from the flesh and stuck it in his shirt pocket. Then, with what little strength he had left, he pulled himself out into the cool night air and sat at the water's edge, scrubbing the blood off his arm and hand as best he could, wincing as the liquid touched his acid burns.

He groaned inwardly as he stared at his freshly cleaned claws; despite their clean outward appearance, the stench of blood would linger for days as a constant reminder of his dreadful deed. With a shake of his head, he took a deep breath and slowly climbed to his feet and began the long walk back into the city.

He was feeling awfully strange as he trudged along. Confused—his heart was in turmoil, but his mind was simply blank. Even the fury and anger he harbored against Sango and Miroku was held back by the solid wall of nothingness that had been erected in his head. He took no notice of his surroundings, and didn't even realize where he was walking. For what felt like hours he continued to walk, as far away from the warehouse as he could get. Finally, he was feeling so weak that he doubted he could take another step; that is, until he noticed where he was.

Blinking as he awakened from his daze, he peered around himself, and saw that he was standing directly in front of the Cornerstone Tap. The Cornerstone Tap was a dingy, ill-lit bar that was his favorite place to drink when he needed to escape his apartment for a while. Seeing the tarnished sign on the front, Inu-Yasha was suddenly attacked with the desperate thirst for whiskey, so he mustered up enough strength to push the door open and stagger up to the bar, collapsing onto a stool.

Glancing up when Inu-Yasha practically fell into his establishment, the bartender sighed knowingly and set a shot glass on the bar, having it filled with whiskey by the time Inu-Yasha was settled onto the stool.

Iro had known Inu-Yasha for a long time. For two or three nights a week for the past several years he had been Inu-Yasha's caretaker, providing the miserable demon with all the drink he wanted. He knew Inu-Yasha so well that he could tell which nights he should cut the demon off early and which nights it was a better idea to allow him to drink himself into oblivion without berating. He knew when the demon needed to talk and when he simply needed a quiet drink in peace. Iro knew that his bar was an escape for the unhappy demon, and it was his job to make it the best place possible for his customers. It was why he was so good at his job, and it kept Inu-Yasha coming back.

With a slight nod at Iro in thanks, Inu-Yasha swallowed the shot in a gulp, gasping as it burned like fire down his throat. Shaking his head a bit to ease the burn, he pulled out his carton of cigarettes and lit one, inhaling the smoke deeply. After a few drags of his cigarette and another shot of whiskey helpfully provided by Iro, he finally began to calm down, his shoulders slumping as the tension in them lessened.

“Rough evening?” Iro asked disinterestedly, pouring the demon another drink.

Inu-Yasha snorted. “Damn right. I'm hopin' one of these will help me forget it.” He took a gulp of the liquor to prove his point.

Iro shrugged. “One will eventually.”

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As Sango and Miroku followed up on Inu-Yasha's assignment later that night, they were more anxious than usual. How had the demon reacted when he'd realized what the target was? Was he able to get the jewel shard without killing the human? Just how angry was he with them? All those questions seemed to be floating silently in the air during the silent car ride to Atlantic Avenue. The tension was thick as they drove around the docks, quickly discovering the smashed crates and piles of bones.

After that, they lost Inu-Yasha's trail, but after another long search, they were led by a trail of blood to warehouse 1514 and the mangled corpse.

“So…” Miroku said as they circled the huge body, speaking for the first time in over an hour. “I guess he was forced to kill the human after all.”

“Mm. Better this one dead than to allow dozens of others to die at his hands,” Sango replied sagely.

The silence took over again as Miroku studied the gaping hole in its stomach and Sango the wound in its chest. Finally he said aloud, “Inu-Yasha's going to kill us for this.”

“…Yes,” Sango answered, unable to disagree. Both were trying not to think of what Inu-Yasha was going to do when he saw them next. Sighing heavily, she pulled out her phone. “I'll call the Order and have then send in a cleaning crew to get this taken care of before the dockworkers come in the morning.”

“Well, do it on the car ride.” Miroku ushered her back outside. “We're going to the Cornerstone Tap.”

“Ah, yes.” They both knew that Inu-Yasha often escaped to the Tap after a particularly stressful day, and today had certainly given him reason enough to go. “But… why?”

He looked guiltily at Sango. “The sooner we apologize, the better things will be.”

Nodding unhappily, Sango said, “Agreed.”

The drive to the bar was just as uncomfortable as the drive to the docks. The two partners were stewing in guilt and fear. They had seen the rages Inu-Yasha could fly into, and were worried if they would escape his wrath unscathed or not. However, their consciences wouldn't be at ease until they had made good, so they made their way unwillingly to the Cornerstone Tap.

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