InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In Deep Woods ❯ Chapter 7

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

In Deep Woods, 7:


Trace rolled over, grateful for blue sky above his head even if it was cold.  Just the sensations of the snow against his back and the sun on his face affirmed he was alive.  Megumi stirred, and snuggled closer.

“We should get going,” she murmured, turning her golden eyes on him.  She was as bare as he was, neither one of them affected by the cold.  They were both youkai, as much spirit as flesh.

Trace smiled.  For once, he was glad of the flesh.  Megumi was warm and alive and she loved him still.  His smile faltered.  She didn’t know everything he had done.  Would she still feel the same once she knew?

This couldn’t last.  Already, Trace felt the beginning pangs of hunger.  He needed life to sustain him, especially in this mortal form he couldn’t shed.  And Megumi was the nearest source of life at the moment.  She no longer had the protections her grandmother had cast over her and over the cave that had been his prison.  She was vulnerable, as he had proved when he drained her with a kiss.

“You’re right,” he said, reluctantly getting to his feet.  “We should go.”

Megumi knew a place, a shelter in the middle of nowhere that the wolves used when they ran in these woods.  Trace wasn’t happy about going back inside a cave, any cave, but he had to admit it was cozy.  Megumi shook out some furs that were stacked by the back wall, and lit a fire near the entrance.

“Stay here, I’m going hunting,” she said, smiling at him as he shrugged back into the jeans she’d so thoughtfully brought with them.  Megumi remained naked.  Easier to hunt that way, she had explained.

Trace paused in the act of zipping up.  “I’ll go with you.”

Megumi laughed, a light, tinkling sound that pulled on something in Trace’s stomach.  “A contest, then,” she said, grinning.  “We’ll each go hunting and see who brings back the bigger catch!”

Without waiting for his reply, she streaked off, bearing left, and was soon lost to sight in the dense woods.

Trace followed more slowly, bearing right.  Actually, this worked out well.  He would hunt in his way.  Megumi would win this contest, because Trace would not leave anything behind to bring back.  He grinned in anticipation.  Around him, sturdy pines withered and died.  Without his noticing, small, undefined youkai sprang into existence in his wake.  He sucked in a great breath.  Ah, life was good.



“I win!”  Eyes sparkling, Megumi dropped the carcass of a deer in front of the cave.  Trace whistled his appreciation.  He helped her carve it up, licking the blood off his fingers as he did so.  After absorbing pure energy from several living deer, he could savor the merely physical taste of the blood, and found himself looking forward to the meat, too.

They gorged themselves on the deer, and buried the remains of the carcass far away from their little hideaway.  Trace felt it was a waste, but was reluctant to flaunt his power in front of Megumi.  She seemed to have forgotten the whole soul-sucking kiss, or at least, not to have taken him entirely seriously when he had told her that’s how he fed.  He didn’t want to remind her.

“What’s that?”  Megumi came to full attention, her golden eyes going hard as she stared at a point beyond him, on the other side of the fire.

Trace glanced back.  An amorphous youkai hung in the air just outside their cave, trying unsuccessfully to get in.  He realized with a shock that it was one of his, formed, no doubt, from the excess energy when he fed earlier.

“I’ll take care of it,” he volunteered, striding quickly towards the entrance.  He meant to reabsorb the creature quietly, without Megumi’s noticing.  He’d have to be more careful in the future.

“No, wait.  It can’t get in.  I set a barrier,” Megumi said, surprising Trace.  He had forgotten she was a miko now, like her grandmother.  He shouldn’t have; her barrier had blasted him once already back on Inuyasha’s mountain.

A crafty look crossed his face.  He wanted to test his strength against the barrier.  He was nowhere near as weak has he had been only a day ago.  Disregarding Megumi’s warning, he took another step forward, feeling the pressure from her barrier as he approached.  Just before he made contact, the pressure disappeared as, with a soft cry of dismay, Megumi let go of her barrier.

Trace passed through unscathed, and the formless youkai flew at him.  Without thinking, he reabsorbed the creature into himself.  “He’s gone,” he called back to Megumi.

She ran out and threw her arms around him.  “Don’t ever scare me like that again!”  she scolded.  “I could have purified you!”

Trace tried not to smile.  “Scorched a little, that’s all,” he said, holding her lightly.  

“What was that thing?” Megumi asked, looking around warily.  She sniffed a few times for good measure, but Trace was fairly certain the thing carried no scent.

He shrugged.  “A youkai.  Mostly unformed.”

“Yeah, but where did it come from?  I’ve never seen anything like that in these woods before.”  Megumi pondered the situation, and her eyes lit up.  “Not there, but I have seen youkai like that one before.  In Grandpa’s woods.  They were Fenn’s.”  Her face tilted upwards, puzzled.  “How do you know Fenn?  You said he is like you.  Fenn, he made me forget, he—he did this to us.  Why?  In the cave, you called him ‘father.’  Is he really your father?  Trace?  Trace?”

While Megumi was talking, working through things out loud, Trace turned away.  He didn’t want to see her face.  When she called out to him, he was tempted not to answer.  But eventually, he relented.  “The youkai was mine,” he admitted.  “It’s like Fenn’s because I’m like Fenn.  Once, I was like that youkai I just extinguished.  Nothing.”  He gave a short little laugh.   “A piece of excess energy Fenn cast off a long time ago.”

“I don’t believe that,” Megumi said.  “I mean, I believe what you’re telling me, but that’s not who you are now.”

“Isn’t it?”  Trace laughed bitterly.  “You asked why Fenn did this to us, took away your memory of me and locked me in a cave with no energy so that I became trapped inside this body?  Because I’m nothing to him, and you were just an unfortunate side effect.  Better for you that you forgot about me.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”  Megumi let out her breath in a huff.  “What did we ever do to him?”

Trace shook his head.  He hadn’t wanted to have this conversation now, ever.  He headed back inside the cave and sat down heavily just beyond the fire.  Megumi followed him in.  “I don’t get everything that happened,” she said quietly.  “But I wouldn’t change it, now that I have you back.”

Trace stared up at her, as she pulled her strange clothes back on in the firelight.  The clothes were definitely different, but. . . “You are a lot like Midoriko,” he said.  “She gave everyone a fair chance, even her enemies.”

“Midoriko?  You mean the ancient miko who--?”

“—who was your ancestor,” Trace finished.  “Yes, I knew her.  I went to her time so that I could kill her.”  He gave her a half-smile.  “That didn’t work out so well.”

“Her time?”

Trace realized Megumi had no idea how to travel in between across time.  She had the ability; her mother and her two uncles had been able to do it.   She should be able to do it, too.

Megumi sat down beside him.  “I’m confused,” she said.  “Midoriko?  Why did you try to kill her?  And what does that have to do with Fenn?”

“It wasn’t only Midoriko,” Trace admitted.  “It was all of you.”

Megumi’s eyes widened.  “Me?  You tried to kill me?”

Trace laughed out loud, but he wasn’t happy.  “What do you think I just did when I stole your energy with that kiss?  But no, I didn’t try to kill you.  I tried to use you to hurt your mother and the rest of Inuyasha’s children.  That didn’t work, either.   But anyway, that’s why Fenn blocked your memories and helped your grandmother lock me away.”

“Use me?  What do you mean—use me?”  Megumi blinked, then her face drained of color.  “Are you saying you never even loved me?”

“You wanted to know.”  Trace said in a tired voice.  He poked a stick in the fire, making sparks fly.

“Why?”  Megumi whispered.

“Why, why, why?” Trace mocked.  “I don’t know!”  He threw the stick into the fire, and it flared up, illuminating Megumi’s stricken face.

She swallowed, and hastily stood up.

Finally, thought Trace.  He hated to keep doing this to her; he hadn’t actually told her he never loved her—he couldn’t.  But he let her jump to that conclusion.  Better she hate him.

“Leaving?” he taunted her.  “Go ahead.”

“No.”  Megumi sat back down.  She grabbed onto his arm.  “Not without you.”

Trace flickered out of existence and back in, a second later.  Now that he was stronger, he had regained some of his power over time and space, not much, but enough to move in between so he could put some distance between them.  It was for her own good.  “You can’t hold me,” he said triumphantly.

Megumi stared across the dying fire where Trace now sat.  Then, looking determined, she disappeared, to reappear next to him again, and wrapped her arms around his once more.  Trace realized his powers were still not what they used to be—he hadn’t caught her thoughts at all.

“Maybe I can’t,” she said.  “But I can follow you.”

Trace sighed, and relaxed against her.  “You shouldn’t trust me,” he said.

“Love,” Megumi replied.  “Love you.  I don’t believe that you don’t love me, either.”

Trace had nothing to say to that.  

 
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