InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ I Choose You ❯ Rotten ( Chapter 7 )

I’ve no inspiration to write author’s notes at the beginning anymore…my witticisms are tired. [not that I used many lately]   Chapter Seven: Rotten  

The temple was no different than before. It was no more sinister. If anything, it seemed less so. But Inu-Yasha could still feel the heat in his blood, the fire in his veins. Whatever the temple might seem, it wasn’t innocent. They had hurried along with the others to find out what was going on. Miroku and Sango had been wary of Inu-Yasha at first, and very surprised at his and Kagome’s emphatic demand to return to the temple. Kagome had tried to explain…a very vague explanation…of why they were going.

Basically, she told Sango that someone had given Inu-Yasha a fruit that made him transform and they were going to find out why. Of course, she was too embarrassed to tell what the fruit had actually done, and she would never admit that it had happened to her, too. Despite her best efforts to avoid it though, she did give away that it had made him act strange, and it didn’t take Miroku long to guess how. But the monk was always thinking that sort of thing. Even a stupid guess would be right eventually.

It was nearing dusk as they finally arrived, but Inu-Yasha did not want to wait for another night to find out what Taishakan intended for them. Not only that, but he was worried that the effects of the fruit might not have been so temporary. He didn’t want Miroku and Sango about if he suddenly started trying to…Well, he didn’t think that it would return tonight, but just in case…He might have risked it if the monk and slayer hadn’t been there.

The temple was a dark, dreary place, in serious disrepair. It looked as if it hadn’t been used in centuries, but Inu-Yasha knew better. There had been a cult here until not too long ago. How the temple had become so ruined in such a short time, he didn’t know. As they drew near the central hall, the passages grew darker, until they finally reached the great open space in the center of the temple.

There were the groves just as he remembered them. There was the rough throne. Taishakan was nowhere to be seen. Or smelled, though Inu-Yasha remembered from before that the man seemed to have no scent. There was more light than before. The great high dome overhead seemed to have cracked a bit more, allowing some slight more light to filter in. Inu-Yasha ignored the trees as he looked about for Taishakan. They pulled just as much as they had before, and his mouth began to water at the sight and smell of the red fruit.

The others seemed transfixed by the trees. Inu-Yasha grabbed Kagome’s arm to keep her from reaching out for a fruit, and he actually had to kick Miroku’s shin to wake the monk from his stupor. “Don’t pay any attention to the trees or the fruit. We’re looking for a man, not food.” Kagome and Sango nodded, and Miroku sighed with one last longing glance at the red shapes high up in the trees.

“What man, little hanyou? Do you mean me?” Taishakan seemed to materialize along a shadowy path through the grove. “You’re back soon, and with your lady friend. You two enjoyed your fruits, did you? Back for more already?”

Kagome blushed a deep pink, and Inu-Yasha ignored the heat rising in his own face. “No, we’re not back for more, you bastard. What did you do to us? What was in those fruits!”

Taishakan looked surprised for a moment, the first real show of emotion Inu-Yasha had seen in the man. “The fruits? There’s nothing wrong with them. As I said, they could give you what you desired.” He frowned. “Though they seem to have not worked as well as I had hoped. Perhaps you would wish to try again? I hope there were no ill effects. This is the first time they have failed.”

Kagome shook her head. “No, we don’t want any more, thank you. We don’t like what they did…If they didn’t do what they were supposed to, then I don’t think we want to try it again. Anyways, how is a fruit supposed to give a person what he desires?”

Taishakan smiled benevolently at her. Inu-Yasha noticed that it never reached his eyes. “Oh, but pretty girl, these fruits are magical. These trees were blessed by a god to inspire a person to find love. Not just any love, but the one true love.” He glanced between the blushes on Kagome and Inu-Yasha’s faces. “I think that they did work, but not in the way I had expected. I suppose you two did not consummate?”

Inu-Yasha sputtered incoherently and Kagome blushed even brighter, but she still spoke. “What do you mean, exactly, by ‘consummate’?”

Taikashan sighed in exasperation. “You two did not couple? Mate? Rut? You two did not have sex?”

“Oh,’ Kagome said faintly just before Inu-Yasha finally managed a strangled, “No we didn’t do anything, you sick bastard!” It didn’t help that Miroku looked disappointed.

Taishakan looked disappointed too. “Oh, that is sad. You would have enjoyed it. The fruit makes it much more pleasurable.” Inu-Yasha was nearly ready to murder the man, but he continued, seemingly unaware of the hanyou’s fury or discomfort. “It doesn’t help my plans at all. If only you’d done as you were supposed to. You would have enjoyed it far more, and it would have been much simpler.”

“What do you mean? What plans?” Kagome seemed to overcome her embarrassment. Taishakan had planned this, for some reason. He had planned for them to…to…Not that it would have been completely evil, of course.

“It would have been much simpler if you two had consummated your desires. I know you both wanted to. You still do.” Again the two blushed. “I can’t understand why the fruits didn’t work.”

“Those fruits, you said, help a person find love,” Miroku began hesitantly. This was shaky ground for him. “If they are there to inspire love, then why must they inspire sex? Sex does not have to go with love.” Taikashan glared at the monk, but Miroku continued. “You don’t seem to understand that. Don’t you know anything about love? Even though love and sex are connected, they do not necessarily entail one another.”

Taikashan scoffed loudly. “As if you would know much of the nobility of love, monk. Desire is strong in you. You have no right to speak of such foolish notions.”

Miroku shook his head. “I’m not perfect, but I do know that love is special. Even I can love.”

Taikashan stared at the four before him: Inu-Yasha, half red with embarrassment and half with anger; Kagome, still pink but suspicious; Miroku, strangely somber and earnest; Sango, cheeks slightly pink and slightly angry. He growled.

Miroku spoke again. “Perhaps you really don’t understand love. If these fruits really were blessed by a god, then what gives you the right to give them to whomever you please? You have no right to these groves…unless the rumours are true.”

“The truth? The truth monk, as you surely know, is that these fruits are mine. This temple is mine. I have favoured this ungrateful hanyou and his whore with my attentions. You should humble yourself before me.” The four before him were not satisfactorily awed.

“So, you’re a god?” Kagome said just before Inu-Yasha said, “I expected more from a god.” which was followed quickly by “My what!? GRRRRR!!!!” and “Hey! We never asked for you attention!”.

Miroku let the shouts pass right by. “I think there is more than that. You’re the fallen god that we have heard about. I thought it was just a rumour, but it is true. You are no true god, not anymore.”

Taikashan erupted in fury for the first time. “I AM a god! They had no right! How dare they cast me down? I am a god, what does it matter to me what happens to some mere mortals? So what if my attentions hurt some petty humans? They had no right to take my power!”

“So, your immortality was stripped from you for evils you did. Perhaps you should not have toyed with those who belonged to other gods.”

“Silence, monk!”

“So, you’re no more than another evil bastard, huh? You may have been a god, but I guess even gods can be worthless scum.” Inu-Yasha grinned. His face was calculating. “I’ve dealt with lots of evil bastards. Never killed a god though. It sounds interesting. I bet Kouga could never compete with that.” He ignored Kagome’s glare. “Now tell me what you wanted with me and Kagome, or I will kill you.”

Inu-Yasha glared as Taikashan laughed loudly. “You? Kill me? Little hanyou, you seem to overestimate yourself a great deal. I may not be what I once was, but here in my own temple, I am still a god. Though my power crumbles about me, it will be a sad, sad day when I can not kill a petty youkai.”

“You want to try? I’ve killed lots of petty youkai, myself.”

Taikashan ignored him. “What I wanted, what I still want, little hanyou, is vengeance. To see the fall of those who struck me down. The fruit that you took are notoriously addictive.” Taikashan grinned. “Sex seems to grip people, you know. They will do a lot for such pleasures. I had not expected my fruit to work the way they did. I haven’t used them for that purpose for a very long time. Who would have thought they still could inspire love?”

The god shook his head, almost sadly. “I used to be a god of love. I lent aid to many couples, but it all soured…” His eyes turned almost red, full of pain or hate. “Oh, but I got her in the end. She may have not wanted me, but she did enjoy the fruit I prepared especially for her, heh. It certainly did what I wanted for her. I grew bored of her though, so I sent her on her way. The fruit kept working though. She opened her legs for every man she came across until she finally went mad. Then her father cursed me to this existence. I will bring him down though. He will regret it, just as she regretted spurning me.”

Kagome and Sango looked sick. Inu-Yasha felt a bit ill as well. “You are an evil bastard! You deserve even worse than they gave you!”

Taikashan seemed not to hear him. He was rambling, half-mad. “Oh, but I will get my revenge. The fruit may not have worked properly, but it did bring you back. If I can’t have your service, then I will have your Shikon no Tama. I was prepared to give you more fruits in exchange for your service, but I shall simply have to kill you and take the jewel shards, myself!”

“Prepare to die, you damned bastard!”

End of Chapter Seven

I think Inu-Yasha versus Fallen Deity is a forgone conclusion. No one can take IY. Next chapter: Crazy For You.

-Chevalier Mal Fet