InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hanyou Wars ❯ Planning ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I only own Ryu and Tora (and I’m not particularly proud of that) and Takara (who I really like).

7. Planning  

Ryu stared at the figure before him with the mixture of fear and revulsion that always seemed to characterize the occasional meetings with his family’s anonymous benefactor. Perhaps, he thought, the reason I’m so uncomfortable with the stranger who had been guiding our business is just because he’s so damned odd. Although only about average height, the cloaked and hooded figure was a complete unknown. It wasn’t possible to determine whether it was youkai or human, male or female.

The muffled voice was, as always, cold. “The time has come to collect payment for all of my assistance.”

Ryu had been expecting this conversation ever since the day he and his younger brother had been expelled from the taijiya training program. Cold, hungry, and in disgrace, they had been huddled in a rain-soaked forest clearing when the stranger had first come to them. After a brief conversation, they had emerged from the woods with a new sense of purpose and a new goal. Rather than enslaving youkai for human masters, they would instead capture the hanyou filth and sell them to both youkai and humans to do with as they pleased.

The last two years had been lucrative, and Ryu understood that they owed all of their financial success to the advice and assistance of the stranger who now stood before him. He simply nodded and said, “Name your price.”

After a few moments, he left the stranger sitting on a log near the fire in the middle of their campsite and returned moments later with his younger brother Tora. The three spoke long into the night about what was to be done, the risks involved, and the rewards possible from such an obviously dangerous undertaking.

Still, if it could be accomplished, each of the three would achieve his greatest desire.

The group sat around the fire in the main room of the house, an odd mixture of youkai, hanyou, and human. “Look,” Kagome said, pouring tea for them all, “I know we can’t make a move against these slavers right now--for a lot of reasons. All I’m saying is that we should have a plan in place for when we are ready.”

Although the others were in general agreement, there were few suggestions regarding the details of such a plan. As Miroku explained it, what good is a plan if you don’t have a place to start from?

“Well,” Sango said, “At least we can narrow down the search area a little. I mean, Takara was wounded pretty badly when he escaped. He couldn’t have been traveling for more than a day or two--he would have been healed a lot more by the time he was found if he was. Their camp has to be within a couple of days’ travel of the village.”

“Not really.” All eyes turned to where the adult inuhanyou paced restlessly across the room. “It’s not that simple. You’re all forgetting something. He’s been with us for more than a week now, and some of his injuries still aren’t completely healed. Kagome thinks that he’s healing slower than normal because he was starving. Hell,” he snarled, cracking his knuckles in frustration, “He could have been out there a week for all we know.”

“I don’t think it was that long--four or five days, maybe.”

Everybody turned in surprise at the small figure standing in the doorway. “What are you doing here, Takara? It’s much too late for you to be up.”

He sat down in the circle on the opposite side of the woman from the adult hanyou who had returned to his place. “You’re trying to find a way to stop the people who did this to me,” he said, gesturing at the nearly-healed wounds on his legs. “I want to help as much as I can.”

The Buddhist monk sitting across the fire nodded slowly. “I would say that it’s well within your right to do so.” He glanced at his taijiya wife, and continued, “If you don’t know exactly how long you traveled before you got here, do you remember the direction you moved in?”

“It’s hard to say, exactly. I moved at night and slept during the day. I couldn’t really see the stars while I was in the forest, but I can’t help feeling like I was moving mostly to the south.”

Sango nodded in something very like satisfaction. “Okay. We have a general sort of time frame and a direction for a start. It’s not much,” she said with a broad grin in the direction of the couple across the fire, “But we’ve started with less information before.”

Kagome nodded in agreement. “We still need a plan.”

“No, we don’t. We already have a plan.”

Everybody turned to face the silver-haired hanyou with something like surprise. His history didn’t exactly lead others to expect him to be likely to formulate a workable plan. Only his mate really understood precisely how intelligent he really was, that he had long pretended to be the rash, simple-minded, impulsive fool nearly everyone believed him to be simply to keep some measure of peace with the humans around him: if they thought he was stupid, they would be less likely to fear his power. “What plan?”

He shrugged, something of his trademark bravado showing. “The idea the pup was talking about when he first got here. Set a trap for them--put out a kind of bait they could never hope to find otherwise and take them down when they go for it. If we divide the area up into sections we can cover each part of the circle one at a time until we catch the bastards.”

“I don’t like it.”

He looked in surprise at his mate. “What’s not to like? It’s not like this will be all that dangerous--at least, not for me. Besides,” he smirked, “You’ll all be right nearby: it’s not like I’ll be dangling out there all by myself. I’ll sit out there somewhere, looking like a complete idiot, and when they try to grab me you guys can take them out. It’s probably better that way, anyway--I might damage them a little too much by accident.”

The monk nodded. “Then we can make them show us the way to their base so we can release the rest of their prisoners.”

That, it seemed, was that.