InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ How Do We Learn to Love the Ones We Hate? ❯ Those Who Are Mistaken and Those Who Are Just Misled ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I own absolutely no characters created by Rumiko Takahashi; as much as I wish I was brilliant enough to come up with these characters, I did not; however, any characters that I create, I do own. Yay! I'm smart enough to make up characters.

 

 

Those Who Are Mistaken and Those Who Are Just Misled

 

 

Sango sighed and stepped carefully around the doorway, hoping---no, praying---that Bankotsu would not be in the great hall.

 

Yeah right.

 

Sango's breath caught in her throat and her cheeks went 56 different shades of red as she saw him standing there, his broad shoulders, lean torso, strong legs and arms, perfectly built for battles. She sighed; he was a bloody freaking god.

 

“Sango.” Ayame snuck up behind her and tapped her shoulder, making Sango jump three feet. “You looking at Miroku?”

 

“Oh, um---” It was then that Sango actually noticed Miroku for the first time, even though he was four feet behind Bankotsu. She noticed everyone else in the room for the first time too. “---I was… actually I was---”

 

“It's ok!” Ayame gave her an encouraging pat. “Doesn't matter if he's a commoner, it's the love that matters.” She ran off into the grand hall and up the stairs to Kagome's room.

 

That's right, it's about love… I should really go speak to him. Sango got excited over the way she felt when Miroku held her hand and took a step towards him with a last encouraging deep breath, but Bankotsu took one step forward, getting right in Sango's line of vision, and she instantly forgot about Miroku and only saw Bankotsu.

 

Miroku looked over to Sango and his heart sank when he saw her making gaga eyes at that Bankotsu bastard of all people. The guy had an aura of pure evil, and Sango came from a demon slayer clan, shouldn't she of all people be able to sense the evil?

 

At least she's too shy to go actually talk to him, maybe Kagome will be able to talk her out of it… I'll have to go see about that. He turned and jumped up the stairs two at a time to Inuyasha's room, leaving Sango frozen in the middle of the doorway, unable to look away from Bankotsu.

 

Look away, look away! Sango shouted at her eyes, but they were glued to Bankotsu, and after a time, Sango realized that she could look at other women, but when she tried to look for Miroku, her eyes flicked without command back to Bankotsu's face.

 

It's ok, just look for Rin, no, she's up in her room, look for Ayame or Kagome! Sango forced herself to look at people's feet so she could see if they were male or female before looking at their faces. Kagome, Ayame, Kagome, Ayame, Kagome, Ayame… are you kidding me?! They weren't in the room, Ayame had run up the stairs to find Kagome, and Rin was still flat on her back, unable to move from loss of blood.

 

Great! Just perfect! Absolutely spectacular! She spun and stomped out of the room, realizing after, that she had left without trouble of… of… No matter how hard she tried not to look back, the second she thought his name, he turned into own her personal magnet; he was like a drug, a drug where the body took over controls without regards for the mind. Sango sighed, his face was so perfect; she found a chair and sat down, stealing glances at him all through the night, having completely forgotten about trying to get away from him.

 

“If you'll excuse me ladies.” Bankotsu took one of their hands and kissed it, making the girl go bright red. This is taking way to long, mom and dad are getting restless, and I'm going to get killed if I don't get Kagome, and fast. He took a step towards his mother's potions room and knocked, entering when no one answered.

 

“Good, I haven't seen you the entire time we've been here, I was afraid that you didn't come.” He smirked at the girl sitting on the bed; she had white hair, white skin and a white dress, not to mention the white mirror and the white flowers in her hair, the only thing that was black was her pure ink black eyes.

 

“Bankotsu.” Kanna held up her mirror slightly, speaking as always in her whispery enchanting voice. The mirror glowed, and then showed a pasture, six men were sitting in it, eating around a camp fire, at least almost all looked human; one was mostly made of machine and another was easily big enough to be an ogre demon; all had purple marks on their faces, like the purple cross Bankotsu had on his forehead.

 

“Where's Kagura?” Bankotsu asked, standing up from his crouch by the mirror. Kanna looked to the window, where a woman was standing; she wore a purple and white kimono, and had feathers in her hair; she was flicking a demon fan open and closed out of habit.

 

“Yeah?” she answered, clearly disinterested.

 

Bankotsu ignored her usual attitude and continued as if she hadn't spoken. “I need you to take a message to Jakotsu, he needs to meet me with the rest of the Band on the outer edge of the Takashi forest.”

 

He paused, and smiled suddenly at all of his memories with his Band of Seven, the seven undefeatable mercenaries who slaughtered everyone at will and without regrets. “Tell them all that there's a battle on the way, a big one, they won't want to miss it.”

 

Kagura nodded and pulled a feather from her hair, Bankotsu shielded his eyes from the winds that would shame a hurricane and then watched as Kagura sailed on a giant feather off into the horizon.

 

“Bankotsu.” Kanna said again and looked down at the mirror in her lap, it glowed before showing the Lady Takashi, she was growing increasingly weaker, especially her breathing and her heart, she was no longer able to lift her head on her own; Bankotsu nodded.

 

“Tell Kikyo when she next comes in.” he said over his shoulder as he walked out, not bothering to remind her to tell his parents regardless, Kanna was undeniably the most trustworthy of all of their servants. She wasn't the strongest, especially without her mirror, but she was as of yet, undefeated. Bankotsu smirked again, he would need to summon Juromaru, Kageromaru, Goshinki, Hakudoshi, and Muso; this was going to be a very big battle. He walked out onto the veranda and pictured the Takashi's beautiful forest… being swallowed in flames, just like all of the other palaces the Band of Seven had dealt with, just the thought made him smile fully.

 

Lady Tsubaki leaned heavily on Lord Naraku's arm, and prepared to kiss him when an albino girl in the path made her---her, of all people---jump at the sudden appearance.

 

“Kanna?” Naraku asked, ignoring Tsubaki's snarling face.

 

“Naraku.” Kanna's mirror glowed and the image of Kagura landing by the Band of Seven was quickly flowed by the image of the dying Lady Takashi and then of Bankotsu, smiling wickedly at the horizon.

 

“So everything is going well at last.” Naraku smirked, the same evil smirk that his son had inherited; Kanna nodded and then walked back around the corner of the maze from where she had come, Naraku could see a glow emitting from her slightly until she was out of sight.

 

“Why does she always jump out of nowhere like that?” Tsubaki snapped, gripping Naraku's arm with a force that would rival her shikigami python.

 

“She's the daughter of void, she cannot help it.” He told his wife sweetly, kissing her on the lips; Tsubaki instantly smiled again and continued to walk.

 

Lady Takashi's Room

 

The mosquito doctor held his breath while he listened to Lady Takashi's heart, and turned to glare at Hokaku when he coughed accidentally.

 

“I can't hear her heart rate if everything isn't silent. Please!” he said, and then everyone in the room held their breath again as he listened.

 

“Hey.” Miroku poked his head in the room, the mosquito doctor sighed. “Anyone seen Inuyasha?”

 

“No.” the doctor said patiently. “Now if you'll please be quiet, I'm trying to listen to Lady Takashi's heart.”

 

“Oh, sorry.” Miroku stepped quietly into the room and closed the door with a soft click behind him; then joined everyone else in holding their breath.

 

“Anyone seen Inuyasha?” Koga opened the door rather loudly, the doctor put his hand over his eyes.

 

“Shh!” Miroku hushed him. “The doctor's trying to listen to Lady Takashi's heart.”

 

“Oh, sorry.” Koga closed the door behind him and leaned against the wall by Miroku.

 

The mosquito doctor waited until everyone was silent before counting her heart beats, until Shippo walked in.

 

“I'm looking for Inuyasha, anyone seen him?” the doctor's head fell to the side and his developed a tick to his left eyebrow.

 

“No.” Miroku and Koga said in unison.

 

“Thanks.” Shippo walked back out, closing the door softly behind him.

 

The doctor didn't wait until everyone was silent; he just started counting before someone else walked in, why was it, that this castle was a graveyard for noise until he actually needed it to be quiet?

 

“Hey.” Ayame opened the door next, the doctor's tick grew worse. “I'm looking for Kagome, anyone seen her?”

 

“And I'm looking for Inuyasha.” Ginta poked his head in.

 

“They must be with each other, we can't find them.” Miroku said.

 

“And I need to listen to Lady Takashi's heart!” the doctor snapped, making everyone jump. “It might help me determine her diagnosis!” He knew that wasn't true, what he was actually looking for was an estimate to tell Inuyasha how long his mother had to live, because he had never seen an illness like this and there was no way to tell where she had gotten it.

 

“Sorry.” Ginta and Ayame ducked back out; Hokaku followed them after a while.

 

The doctor sighed and stared at the door for s few seconds before turning back to Lady Takashi and listening; her condition wasn't good, she was delirious most of the day, she had a fever of at least 103, and she couldn't stop shivering and sweating at the same time. He frowned as he listened to her heart, there wasn't a regular pulse, her heart rate was soft and then loud, fast and then dangerously slow, and beating sometimes every second and sometimes it wouldn't beat for a full ten seconds. He sighed, she had no more than a week to live, and just how was he going to tell Inuyasha?

 

“How is she?” Koga asked as the doctor turned to leave.

 

He shook his head apologetically. “Worse, there is nothing more I can do for her, I don't think she has very long to live at all.”

 

“…How long?” Koga asked quietly.

 

“I would call it a miracle if she lived past the end of this week, I'm sorry.”

 

Koga nodded and the doctor walked to the window, turned into a mosquito and flew out, sweating and gasping under the weight of his huge doctor's bag.

 

“Should we go tell Inuyasha?” Miroku said quietly.

 

“Later.” Koga mumbled, Miroku nodded in agreement and then went to pray for Lady Takashi by her bed.

 

Palace Gates

 

Bankotsu smirked as he heard the sound of Ginkotsu clanking as he came closer, and soon the metal man came into view with the other brothers riding on him, save Kyokotsu, who was far to big for even his foot to fit on Ginkotsu.

 

“Hey! Bankotsu!” Jakotsu yelled, waving his sword in the air like a flag.

 

“Yo!” Bankotsu yelled back, gripping his enormous Halberd---Banryu's---hilt and pulled it out of the cloth on his back, waving it back to Jakotsu.

 

Maze

 

Koga tipped his head up into the wind and inhaled again… yes, Inuyasha and Kagome had definitely been here recently; he rotated his body until he found they direction they had gone and took off, breathing in the wind deeply as he raced.

 

Things were bad, really really bad. Lady Takashi was dying, Rin was basically paralyzed on her bed from lack of blood, Kikyo was becoming more bothersome by the minute, Bankotsu had been disappearing regularly lately, Shippo wouldn't leave Rin's side, they needed to find something called the Shikon Jewel, not to mention the fact that Sango hadn't turned a blind eye towards Miroku in the past week or so, so Miroku was on edge like a cat that was high.

 

Koga slammed his heels into the ground as a new scent intruded into his trail on Inuyasha, but he didn't stop fast enough, and collided head first into something with a white tail and red hair.

 

“Hey Ayame.” He mumbled as best he could with his face in the dirt.

 

“I'm so sorry--- oh, hey Koga.” She finished in a clipped voice.

 

“Hey yourself.” He muttered, peeved that she was so tick off because it was him. “What are you doing?”

 

“I was following Kagome's scent; she disappeared about an hour or two ago, and I just barely picked up where she went.” Ayame picked herself up and dusted her knees off without even looking at him once.

 

“Well, I was following Inuyasha too.” He snapped. What is with her?

 

“Well I suppose I better be going, or maybe I'll leave Kagome and Inuyasha alone.”

 

Koga glared at her, biting his tongue viciously so as not to snarl at her; she continued to ignore him as much as humanly possible while having a conversation with him.

 

“What the hell is your problem?!” he barked suddenly; she stayed still for a few moments before turning to him slowly, so slow that she looked dangerous.

 

“My problem?” she repeated. “What's my problem? At least I'm not the idiot who is STILL chasing after royalty that's already in love with someone else!” she took a few quick steps closer, but he held his ground.

 

“At least I don't feel the need to get violent when I'm pissed off!” he yelled back.

 

“Oh yes!” she threw her hand in the air. “Beautiful! Use me as a spy for information I didn't even know I was giving away, and then throw me away, and while your at it, you should tell me that I have no reason to be mad!”

 

Koga blinked. “You're still stuck on that?” he asked quietly, verifying his conclusion.

 

“Apparently.” She said smartly.

 

“Let me get this straight.” He held up one finger. “You're still mad about something that happened over three months ago, that I would have found out anyways sooner or later?”

 

Ayame didn't move, she didn't blink, and Koga was pretty sure she was even holding that last breath so as to be completely motionless; he couldn't help it, he started laughing, Ayame still didn't move.

 

“You think I used you as a spy?” he rubbed a tear away with the heel of his palm. “That's why you're mad?”

 

“No, that's not it.” She said, still not looking at him.

 

“Then what?” he said, instantly going serious again.

 

She snorted. “Like it matters.”

 

“Apparently it does, if you're so ticked off.”

 

“Like it matters to you.” She corrected herself, looking at him for the first time with a glare out of the corner of her eye.

 

“Try me.” He challenged, folding his crossing his arms across his chest and leaning back dramatically.

 

“… Fine. You even considered maybe looking for another mate?” she said in that same clipped tone.

 

“Why bother?” he shrugged. “I'm a body guard, I live through danger as a possibility every day, no girl would want to put up with that.”

 

"M-hmm.” Ayame smiled, showing perfectly by her expression that she was clearly pissed off. “You'd be surprised at who would be willing to follow a body guard.”

 

“What's it to you?” he confronted her entire argument in those four short words, catching her off guard completely.

 

“It isn't anything to me.” She said firmly, and turned on the spot, storming away.

 

“Women!” Koga threw his hands over his head, and stomped off in the opposite direction.

 

Rin's Room

 

“Christ!” Koga threw Rin's door open, knowing full well that Shippo was still in here and most likely be for the next week or so. “What is it about the female that makes them so damn frustrating?!”

 

“Shut up!” Shippo barked, holding a sleeping Rin on his chest. “She just fell asleep---I kill anyone who wakes her, got it?”

 

“What ever.” Koga mumbled and tried to slam the door, deciding against it at the last second because of Shippo's glare and caught it with his foot, wincing as he heard a small crunch. Well, that'll be another few days of recovery and hopping.

 

“How longs she been asleep?”

 

“About three minutes.”

 

“She tried walking yet?” Koga sat down heavily in the chair by the bed.

 

“Nope.” Shippo popped the `p' with his lips. “She wants to, but she's still to weak to even sit up.”

 

“And the um…” Koga coughed. “apologies?” he smirked.

 

“She hasn't said one today.” Shippo said seriously.

 

“She's been asleep all day.” Koga rolled his eyes. “And what about the past week? She apologized, what? At least four times a day, right?”

 

“Five.” Shippo corrected sourly.

 

“You know, we still need to find that Shikon jewel, or what ever it is.”

 

Shippo nodded, not moving the rest of his body at all for fear of waking Rin. “I know.” He said softly.

 

“This sucks.” Koga threw his hands in the air. “Ayame's pissed at me for reasons unknown to me, Lady Takashi's dying, Inuyasha's blinded by Kagome and vice versa, Rin's paralyzed, you wont move from her side, and I'm pretty sure that the girl Sango has fallen for Bankotsu.”

 

“What?” Shippo sat up, holding Rin tightly. “You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding.”

 

“Dead serious. She can't take her eyes off of him.”

 

“Miroku?”

 

“He knows.” Koga sighed, then rephrased his sentence when the first one didn't cover everything. “He knows, but he isn't exactly… happy… about it.”

 

“Go figure.” Shippo mumbled, snorting a little.

 

“Yeah well, what did you expect?”

 

“Didn't Sango already turn him down once?” Shippo repositioned Rin on his shoulder.

 

“Yup.”

 

“He's a moron, any other girl will take him, and yet he chases after one of the few girls he cant have.” Koga shook his head in amusement.

 

“You said Ayame was mad at you. Why?”

 

“Don't know, she kept muttering all of these stupid riddles about me still looking after Kagome and---”

 

“You're still chasing her?” Shippo gawked.

 

“And how she thinks I should look for another mate.” Koga continued, ignoring him. “She said some mumbo-jumbo about who would be willing to be my mate, not caring about the fact that I'm a body guard.”

 

“Oh really?” Shippo asked smugly. “You know, you are so thick sometimes.”

 

“What's that supposed to mean?” Koga barked, jumping up from the chair.

 

Hokaku came bursting into the room in the next second, slamming the door against the wall and jerking Rin harshly out of her sleep.

 

“Hey!” Shippo snapped, preparing to attack, but he stopped when he saw Hokaku's state.

 

“Lady---Takashi.” He panted heavily. “She's… she's…”

 

“What?” Koga jumped up. “Just spit it out you idiot!” he grabbed Hokaku's collar.

 

“She's stopped breathing, we got her to inhale again, but her heart's going to…”

 

Koga didn't wait for anything else, he ran out of the room and down the hall, almost running Hokaku over in the process.

 

“Inuyasha?” Shippo asked, picking Rin up bridal style.

 

“He---knows.” Hokaku gasped, shielding himself as Shippo almost ran him over, chasing after Koga.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know this chapter wasn't very long. I have the worst case of writer's block, and it sucks!!

 

I apologize for ay grammar/spelling errors. My computer hates me and has decided that my `n' key won't work properly anymore, along with a few others. I am an atrocious speller, that's why there are so many spelling mistakes. If the spell check doesn't catch them, then there they stay (not on purpose).

 

My other faults with this: run on sentences.

 

One of my biggest problems, and I am working on fixing those, so cut me a little slack.