InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Half-Breed ❯ Chapter VII ( Chapter 9 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: rockthedragon7 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.27.2005 | Updated On: 03.31.2005 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 186 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.27.2005 | Updated On: 03.31.2005 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 186 | Status: Completed
Half-Breed: Chapter VII
Footsteps fell like trees crashing to the forest floor. Drops hit water like thunder. Whispering voices sounded like screaming demons. I cracked my eyes open, knowing that I could do no more. Still too tired, too weak… I was cold, though several blankets were warm atop me. I was livid, pale, exhausted, feeling sick to my stomach and nauseously lightheaded. Fever had attacked me and without leniency, brought by the toxin in my blood. I groaned, my voice hoarse from dryness, fading in and out of consciousness, and there was the slight touch of a cool hand against my burning forehead. I could see only the bleary outline of a face and I…
It was so hot here. My sweltering face was buried in my searing hands. My back and arms were scorching. My ears felt as though they were blistering beneath the layer of fine silver fur that ineffectively protected them from the heat. For a moment I almost thought that my clothing had caught fire. It was so hot. I could see only black with my face in my palms, but I could hear. Screams, shrill and god awful - futile pleas to a heartless, black sky.
Something brushed past me, and I lifted my head to see a gray-green tail slither around me, floating through the otherwise still air. I gazed after it in wonder as it curled and glided away along the veranda. I glanced down at my feet, at the staircase on which I sat, and saw the flickering orange glow, the shadows as they played along the steps, and my eyes grew wide with terror. I wheeled around, stricken with fear. An inferno raged with roaring fury, red tongues hammering at the structure, leaping up from the roof to the jet sky overhead as the black clouds, tinted gold from flame, swirled. Beneath the coat of that firestorm, I knew that I was home.
Strange, wrathful growls and snarls arose all about me, and I spun. There was no mistaking my mother’s garden as it was crushed, burned, blackened. There was no mistaking that the monsters in that destructive frenzy were the angry demons come to claim vengeance for my father’s act of dishonor.
A crazed laugh resounded from inside the house, and I looked over my shoulder in time to see my mother sweep past the window within, a look of dread on her fair face. I raced up the stairs and to the window, pressing my palms to the hot glass. I didn’t care if I was burned. I didn’t care. There was only my mother, hurrying through the flaming sitting room, her haori torn and charred, glancing back every now and then. I watched, confused for a moment, until a gruesome three-fingered hand shot out and caught her around the wrist as she tried to flee. She turned, resilient defiance in her eyes, and scrabbled at the dry, encrusted hand, but was easily thrown to the floor. The demon came forward, red eyes wild, fang-filled mouth grinning evilly, and it wrapped its long, clawed fingers around her delicate neck, lifting her from the tatami to glare into her eyes. She held tight to its hand, desperately trying to hide her horror within her anger.
The demon’s opposite hand tore through her lower stomach.
My body convulsed. My eyes were half-open, staring, glazed over with fever. My skin was sticky with a sheen of cold sweat. “…No…” my lips mumbled, and the cool hand on my forehead did nothing to comfort me. “MOTHER!” My voice rang through the land, echoing with the agony, tearing me to pieces inside…
I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came. It went clean through. I could see the look of utter pleasure on the beast’s face, and I could see the look of absolute pain in my mother’s eyes… the starlight had already begun to die. I pounded my fists against the glass, tears streaming down my cheeks. It would not break. I tried to scream, tried until I was sure that I would pass out, but there was no sound coming from my chest. The demon withdrew its bloody hand, and dropped my mother to the floor, where she lay, bleeding. I collapsed against the window, crying, weakly striking the glass. It wouldn’t break. Her blood was everywhere, all over the floor. She was dying.
I sunk to my knees and covered my face with my palms, feeling something clammy in my hands, and I lifted my head to find them dripping in thick, red blood. I took in a sharp breath, found myself inside the house, kneeling next to my mother’s body in the pool of crimson liquid, my hands soaked in her blood, and she slowly looked up at me, pain clouding her eyes. Her mouth silently formed words, which I could not make out. I put my ear to her lips, felt them, but could not hear her voice. She was unspeaking, and I hesitantly glanced to her.
Her sunken flesh was crawling with maggots and worms…
My head was pounding when I woke. I blinked my eyes open, finding myself carefully positioned on my left side, tucked underneath a couple of warm blankets and atop a comfy futon with a soft pillow under my head. The muted light of late afternoon streamed in through a couple of small windows, giving the quiet area, which smelled faintly of herbs, a mellow illumination. ‘Where am I?” I asked myself, and closed my eyes for a moment to dismiss the ache in my skull. Gentle steps entered the room, and I opened one eye to see the bottom of a lengthy blue kimono swaying with every pace of the bare feet beneath it. Sluggishly, my gaze followed the figure until I met the face of the taijiya woman from the woods. Her long black hair was draped over her shoulders, framing her kindly smiling face and brown eyes. Against one hip she carried a basin of water, a cloth hung over the edge, and in the other arm she held a basket. I hesitantly shut my eyes again, hoping that she would be thoughtful enough to aim for my heart and make my death quick. I listened as she quietly knelt next to me, setting the washbasin and the basket to the tatami.
The woman pulled the covers away from my body, and it was then that I realized that I had been stripped of my clothing. I didn’t care. I was too tired to care. My thigh, and my broken arm had been swathed in bandages. Was this taijiya taking care of me? But I was a demon. It was her job to rid the world of creatures like me, yet she chose to tend to my wounds, which had become a sickly yellow colour, ringed by thick blue-black. I lay motionless and confused as she gently unwrapped the bandages from around me, discarding them to one side. “Are you feeling well?” she asked softly. I didn’t answer her, and instead insisted on staring wordlessly as the basket that she had brought with her. It was filled with various medical odds and ends, including fresh bandages, and green medicinal herbs. “Come now,” the woman spoke tenderly as she placed a hand on the back of my head, turning my languid gaze toward her. “How are you feeling?”
I reluctantly looked away, mumbling into my pillow, “No.”
The woman took the herbs from the basket, placing them into a small bowl near her. “No what?” She ground the leaves into a pulp, which had a rather sordid smell to it. I wrinkled my nose at the foul aroma. There was a cool hand against my side, and I lethargically glanced up to see the taijiya examining my injuries. “Your wounds are healing nicely.” She dipped her fingers into the repulsive-smelling paste, and proceeded to smear the herbs over my gashes. A stinging pain shot through my body, and I gasped, kicking my good leg out at her. She caught my foot easily, and laid it to the futon with a pleading look in her eyes. “Please don’t make this difficult.” I was shocked at her. A demon exterminator caring for an injured demon? It was unheard of. But I obligingly allowed her to finish her work as the herbs burnt at my wounds and I whimpered at the pain.
The woman placed a gentle hand on my calf, stroking it with consideration for the ache. My ears perked, and I shot an astonished look at her, the hurt seeming to melt away into nothingness. I stared at her, the memory of my mother reentering my mind. She had done the same to comfort me when I was ill, the same soft brush of my leg. I trembled with lost contentment. I wanted Mother back. I wanted her to hold me to her heart. I wanted her loving kisses on my ears. I wanted to hear her voice again, telling me that it was alright. I missed her… I missed her so much. The woman put a finger to my lips, hushing me.
“Shh. I know that it hurts.” That wasn’t the reason for my tears. Taking a damp cloth in her hand, she dabbed the insignificant scratches on my face, arms, and collarbone. “So, what is your name?”
I brushed the tears from my eyes with a hand. “Inuyasha.”
“Inuyasha,” the woman repeated, grinning at my dog-like ears. “It is a suitable name.” She reached for the bandages in the basket, and unraveled the white roll, gently wrapping it around my thigh. “Tell me, how is it that you stumbled into that demon’s territory and got yourself into such a mess?”
“I…” I began, but my voice choked and I had to start again. “I lost my home.”
She paused and looked at me, distress in her questioning eyes. “That’s awful. Have you nowhere to go? No one to turn to?” I shook my head. The woman returned to swathing my leg in bandages. “That’s terrible.”
There was a knock at on of the windows, and I glanced up, hitching my ears to capture the voices outside. “Yasume, you damn witch! Why do you help that demon!? How dare you!? Have you no pride!?” villagers screamed. “He’s a monster, Yasume! A monster, not a child! Let us kill that wretched thing if you are too soft!” I winced. That was all that humans saw - the demon on the outside - and their spiteful words hurt. I turned toward the woman, who I learnt was named Yasume. She was risking her own repute as a taijiya to help me. Why?
She brought her eyes down to me from the window, and fixed the bandage around my leg with an apologetic sigh. “I’m so sorry. Don’t pay any attention to them. They’re horrible people. They really are. They just don’t understand.”
I must have still been feverish. My hallucinating mind suddenly saw her as my mother. There she was, right in front of me, so real that I could reach out and touch her. I pushed myself to my knees, ignoring the pain of movement, and wrapped my arms around her, crying into the floral pattern of her kimono, letting go of all the emotions, all of the sadness and the anger, the fear, the loneliness. I didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t want to be afraid anymore. Her arms enclosed about me, and her palm ran lightly over my hair. I could picture Mother there, holding me and telling me that I would be fine. But my senses would not be deceived. She didn’t smell like Mother, or sound like Mother. This was Yasume, and Yasume was a demon exterminator, and as such, she was dirt and iron, but she felt like Mother - hands like the wind. “Don’t leave me alone again,” I heard myself sob. “I don’t want to be left alone. Please, Mother. Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll always be with you.” I drew in a quick breath, my cries faltering in my throat, and I hesitated with my head leaning against her shoulder. I reluctantly lifted my gaze to her face. I can’t explain what happened… Yasume was gone and there… Mother. A white brilliance danced all around her, playing upon her sable hair, glimmering and shining like the silver starlight that glistened in her loving eyes and the caring smile upon her lips. She raised a hand to my tear-stained face, moving as though she was in a dream, and she dried my eyes with the ruddy haori she wore, decorated with crimson and amber flowers, and she traced my lips with a gentle, almost ethereal fingertip as I looked up at her with glassy eyes…her hands were cold. “Inuyasha, my beautiful Inuyasha.” Her voice was a faint echo, distant but still wonderfully melodic. “Don’t you remember your promise?” I hardly shook my head. “Your heart will guide you if only you would let it. Past the mountains that rise before you, past the walls.” She cupped my face in her cool palm, looking as though she would burst into tears. “Oh, Inuyasha. You will climb, and you will stumble, and fall, but you’ll get there. You’ll get there. And I will be with you every step of the way…over the mountains and across the seas. Be strong. Do not worry…” The light began to disappear. She began to fade.
“Mother?” My eyes darted over her face in confusion, and I clutched at her kimono, feeling it dissolve beneath my hands. “Mother! Don’t go, Mother! Don’t go!”
As she vanished into the air as shimmering pearly ribbons, her final words met my ears… words that I will never cease to remember. “I’ll always be with you, Inuyasha…” I reached out a trembling hand, and the wisps curled lovingly around my fingers with one last fragile, loving touch. And she was gone, forever away from my world, eternally out of my sight… but always, always by my side.
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Footsteps fell like trees crashing to the forest floor. Drops hit water like thunder. Whispering voices sounded like screaming demons. I cracked my eyes open, knowing that I could do no more. Still too tired, too weak… I was cold, though several blankets were warm atop me. I was livid, pale, exhausted, feeling sick to my stomach and nauseously lightheaded. Fever had attacked me and without leniency, brought by the toxin in my blood. I groaned, my voice hoarse from dryness, fading in and out of consciousness, and there was the slight touch of a cool hand against my burning forehead. I could see only the bleary outline of a face and I…
It was so hot here. My sweltering face was buried in my searing hands. My back and arms were scorching. My ears felt as though they were blistering beneath the layer of fine silver fur that ineffectively protected them from the heat. For a moment I almost thought that my clothing had caught fire. It was so hot. I could see only black with my face in my palms, but I could hear. Screams, shrill and god awful - futile pleas to a heartless, black sky.
Something brushed past me, and I lifted my head to see a gray-green tail slither around me, floating through the otherwise still air. I gazed after it in wonder as it curled and glided away along the veranda. I glanced down at my feet, at the staircase on which I sat, and saw the flickering orange glow, the shadows as they played along the steps, and my eyes grew wide with terror. I wheeled around, stricken with fear. An inferno raged with roaring fury, red tongues hammering at the structure, leaping up from the roof to the jet sky overhead as the black clouds, tinted gold from flame, swirled. Beneath the coat of that firestorm, I knew that I was home.
Strange, wrathful growls and snarls arose all about me, and I spun. There was no mistaking my mother’s garden as it was crushed, burned, blackened. There was no mistaking that the monsters in that destructive frenzy were the angry demons come to claim vengeance for my father’s act of dishonor.
A crazed laugh resounded from inside the house, and I looked over my shoulder in time to see my mother sweep past the window within, a look of dread on her fair face. I raced up the stairs and to the window, pressing my palms to the hot glass. I didn’t care if I was burned. I didn’t care. There was only my mother, hurrying through the flaming sitting room, her haori torn and charred, glancing back every now and then. I watched, confused for a moment, until a gruesome three-fingered hand shot out and caught her around the wrist as she tried to flee. She turned, resilient defiance in her eyes, and scrabbled at the dry, encrusted hand, but was easily thrown to the floor. The demon came forward, red eyes wild, fang-filled mouth grinning evilly, and it wrapped its long, clawed fingers around her delicate neck, lifting her from the tatami to glare into her eyes. She held tight to its hand, desperately trying to hide her horror within her anger.
The demon’s opposite hand tore through her lower stomach.
My body convulsed. My eyes were half-open, staring, glazed over with fever. My skin was sticky with a sheen of cold sweat. “…No…” my lips mumbled, and the cool hand on my forehead did nothing to comfort me. “MOTHER!” My voice rang through the land, echoing with the agony, tearing me to pieces inside…
I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came. It went clean through. I could see the look of utter pleasure on the beast’s face, and I could see the look of absolute pain in my mother’s eyes… the starlight had already begun to die. I pounded my fists against the glass, tears streaming down my cheeks. It would not break. I tried to scream, tried until I was sure that I would pass out, but there was no sound coming from my chest. The demon withdrew its bloody hand, and dropped my mother to the floor, where she lay, bleeding. I collapsed against the window, crying, weakly striking the glass. It wouldn’t break. Her blood was everywhere, all over the floor. She was dying.
I sunk to my knees and covered my face with my palms, feeling something clammy in my hands, and I lifted my head to find them dripping in thick, red blood. I took in a sharp breath, found myself inside the house, kneeling next to my mother’s body in the pool of crimson liquid, my hands soaked in her blood, and she slowly looked up at me, pain clouding her eyes. Her mouth silently formed words, which I could not make out. I put my ear to her lips, felt them, but could not hear her voice. She was unspeaking, and I hesitantly glanced to her.
Her sunken flesh was crawling with maggots and worms…
My head was pounding when I woke. I blinked my eyes open, finding myself carefully positioned on my left side, tucked underneath a couple of warm blankets and atop a comfy futon with a soft pillow under my head. The muted light of late afternoon streamed in through a couple of small windows, giving the quiet area, which smelled faintly of herbs, a mellow illumination. ‘Where am I?” I asked myself, and closed my eyes for a moment to dismiss the ache in my skull. Gentle steps entered the room, and I opened one eye to see the bottom of a lengthy blue kimono swaying with every pace of the bare feet beneath it. Sluggishly, my gaze followed the figure until I met the face of the taijiya woman from the woods. Her long black hair was draped over her shoulders, framing her kindly smiling face and brown eyes. Against one hip she carried a basin of water, a cloth hung over the edge, and in the other arm she held a basket. I hesitantly shut my eyes again, hoping that she would be thoughtful enough to aim for my heart and make my death quick. I listened as she quietly knelt next to me, setting the washbasin and the basket to the tatami.
The woman pulled the covers away from my body, and it was then that I realized that I had been stripped of my clothing. I didn’t care. I was too tired to care. My thigh, and my broken arm had been swathed in bandages. Was this taijiya taking care of me? But I was a demon. It was her job to rid the world of creatures like me, yet she chose to tend to my wounds, which had become a sickly yellow colour, ringed by thick blue-black. I lay motionless and confused as she gently unwrapped the bandages from around me, discarding them to one side. “Are you feeling well?” she asked softly. I didn’t answer her, and instead insisted on staring wordlessly as the basket that she had brought with her. It was filled with various medical odds and ends, including fresh bandages, and green medicinal herbs. “Come now,” the woman spoke tenderly as she placed a hand on the back of my head, turning my languid gaze toward her. “How are you feeling?”
I reluctantly looked away, mumbling into my pillow, “No.”
The woman took the herbs from the basket, placing them into a small bowl near her. “No what?” She ground the leaves into a pulp, which had a rather sordid smell to it. I wrinkled my nose at the foul aroma. There was a cool hand against my side, and I lethargically glanced up to see the taijiya examining my injuries. “Your wounds are healing nicely.” She dipped her fingers into the repulsive-smelling paste, and proceeded to smear the herbs over my gashes. A stinging pain shot through my body, and I gasped, kicking my good leg out at her. She caught my foot easily, and laid it to the futon with a pleading look in her eyes. “Please don’t make this difficult.” I was shocked at her. A demon exterminator caring for an injured demon? It was unheard of. But I obligingly allowed her to finish her work as the herbs burnt at my wounds and I whimpered at the pain.
The woman placed a gentle hand on my calf, stroking it with consideration for the ache. My ears perked, and I shot an astonished look at her, the hurt seeming to melt away into nothingness. I stared at her, the memory of my mother reentering my mind. She had done the same to comfort me when I was ill, the same soft brush of my leg. I trembled with lost contentment. I wanted Mother back. I wanted her to hold me to her heart. I wanted her loving kisses on my ears. I wanted to hear her voice again, telling me that it was alright. I missed her… I missed her so much. The woman put a finger to my lips, hushing me.
“Shh. I know that it hurts.” That wasn’t the reason for my tears. Taking a damp cloth in her hand, she dabbed the insignificant scratches on my face, arms, and collarbone. “So, what is your name?”
I brushed the tears from my eyes with a hand. “Inuyasha.”
“Inuyasha,” the woman repeated, grinning at my dog-like ears. “It is a suitable name.” She reached for the bandages in the basket, and unraveled the white roll, gently wrapping it around my thigh. “Tell me, how is it that you stumbled into that demon’s territory and got yourself into such a mess?”
“I…” I began, but my voice choked and I had to start again. “I lost my home.”
She paused and looked at me, distress in her questioning eyes. “That’s awful. Have you nowhere to go? No one to turn to?” I shook my head. The woman returned to swathing my leg in bandages. “That’s terrible.”
There was a knock at on of the windows, and I glanced up, hitching my ears to capture the voices outside. “Yasume, you damn witch! Why do you help that demon!? How dare you!? Have you no pride!?” villagers screamed. “He’s a monster, Yasume! A monster, not a child! Let us kill that wretched thing if you are too soft!” I winced. That was all that humans saw - the demon on the outside - and their spiteful words hurt. I turned toward the woman, who I learnt was named Yasume. She was risking her own repute as a taijiya to help me. Why?
She brought her eyes down to me from the window, and fixed the bandage around my leg with an apologetic sigh. “I’m so sorry. Don’t pay any attention to them. They’re horrible people. They really are. They just don’t understand.”
I must have still been feverish. My hallucinating mind suddenly saw her as my mother. There she was, right in front of me, so real that I could reach out and touch her. I pushed myself to my knees, ignoring the pain of movement, and wrapped my arms around her, crying into the floral pattern of her kimono, letting go of all the emotions, all of the sadness and the anger, the fear, the loneliness. I didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t want to be afraid anymore. Her arms enclosed about me, and her palm ran lightly over my hair. I could picture Mother there, holding me and telling me that I would be fine. But my senses would not be deceived. She didn’t smell like Mother, or sound like Mother. This was Yasume, and Yasume was a demon exterminator, and as such, she was dirt and iron, but she felt like Mother - hands like the wind. “Don’t leave me alone again,” I heard myself sob. “I don’t want to be left alone. Please, Mother. Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll always be with you.” I drew in a quick breath, my cries faltering in my throat, and I hesitated with my head leaning against her shoulder. I reluctantly lifted my gaze to her face. I can’t explain what happened… Yasume was gone and there… Mother. A white brilliance danced all around her, playing upon her sable hair, glimmering and shining like the silver starlight that glistened in her loving eyes and the caring smile upon her lips. She raised a hand to my tear-stained face, moving as though she was in a dream, and she dried my eyes with the ruddy haori she wore, decorated with crimson and amber flowers, and she traced my lips with a gentle, almost ethereal fingertip as I looked up at her with glassy eyes…her hands were cold. “Inuyasha, my beautiful Inuyasha.” Her voice was a faint echo, distant but still wonderfully melodic. “Don’t you remember your promise?” I hardly shook my head. “Your heart will guide you if only you would let it. Past the mountains that rise before you, past the walls.” She cupped my face in her cool palm, looking as though she would burst into tears. “Oh, Inuyasha. You will climb, and you will stumble, and fall, but you’ll get there. You’ll get there. And I will be with you every step of the way…over the mountains and across the seas. Be strong. Do not worry…” The light began to disappear. She began to fade.
“Mother?” My eyes darted over her face in confusion, and I clutched at her kimono, feeling it dissolve beneath my hands. “Mother! Don’t go, Mother! Don’t go!”
As she vanished into the air as shimmering pearly ribbons, her final words met my ears… words that I will never cease to remember. “I’ll always be with you, Inuyasha…” I reached out a trembling hand, and the wisps curled lovingly around my fingers with one last fragile, loving touch. And she was gone, forever away from my world, eternally out of my sight… but always, always by my side.
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