InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Invitations to Trouble ❯ Battle On The Homefront ( Chapter 23 )

Ba: Mistress Bakani! Ka is threatening me again!

Ka: I did no such thing.

Ba: Yes you did! You asked for a pizza-cutter!!

Ka: Oh, are you still worried about that one de-boning incident?

Ba: MISTRESS BAKANI!!!

Look you two. Behave or I'll go get the phone book.

}

}

}

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kagome had been enjoying breakfast with Lady Shinaki when the attack hit.

At the sound of the urgently clanging bell, she gave a mild frown of confusion and half rose from her seat in preparation to seek the source. However, the look on the other woman's face stilled her actions. "Lady Shinaki?"

Normally a delicate shade of blue, Shinaki's skin paled to a deathly white at the clarion call. "Oh god." Abandoning the meal, the Lady of the West shot to her feet and raced to the door.

Awkwardly getting to her own feet, Kagome watched the older woman shove the panel aside to grab a passing servant. In a display of strength that shocked both of the girls, Shinaki all but lifted the handmaiden in the air while demanding tersely, "What happened? Who got in?!"

Kagome's heart went out to the poor thing that had to face an irate mistress in addition to an unknown threat. The dual distress was apparent in the maiden's panicked answer.

"I-It's the wolves my lady! They're coming to kill us all!" Wailing loudly, she whipped her head back and forth, "I don't want to die!"

A vigorous shake snapped the wailing woman's attention back to danger that was immediate. Lavender eyes grew intense as the Lady practically growled. "How did they breach the shield?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" The maiden shot longing glances at the other servants who were racing through the hall behind her, evidently heading for the more fortified interior of the mansion. With a snort of disgust, Shinaki let her go.

The ungrateful girl did not even pause to give a thankful bow.

Moving back into the room, Shinaki strode purposefully towards one of the many closets in the suite. Silken dresses and finery were flung carelessly aside in a fervent search for something. When the first closet was emptied, she went quickly to the next, muttering under her breath the whole time.

"It's too soon. Curse that fat wolf and his idiocy!" Kagome had to duck a stack of formal kimono's that flew through the air like irate butterflies.

"Do you mean Kouga's father?" Scooting out of the way of the cloth projectiles, Kagome kept an ear out for the sound of approaching trouble. "Why would he do this anyway?"

"Because he's a bitter old man who never forgave Yama for being better than him at everything!" There was honest dislike in Shinaki's voice that seemed laughably mild considering their situation. "Yama got a better territory and general holdings when the lord's divided Yamato, but that was only because he beat Gorotsuki in a wager."

Not hearing anything yet, Kagome diverted her attention from the hall to stare at her mother-in-law. "A wager? Are you telling me that Gorotsuki is risking the lives of thousands of people for a stupid wager?"

Shinaki didn't pause to look up as she replied, "I said he was bitter girl. Yama and Gorotsuki got involved in a hot and heavy dice game back when they were both young and utterly stupid."

Expression lavender eyes rolled heavenwards. "Of course they were drunk at the time, but a taiyoukai's word is his bond. Gorotsuki lost and took the north while Yama held the west. Old fart's been grumbling about it ever since."

"But why now?" Kagome asked. They both could hear the varied sounds of conflict now. It meant that the soldiers had fallen back from the walls and were battling in the courtyard. Kagome hadn't realized she was wringing her hands until she accidentally scratched herself. Infuriated by the feelings of helplessness that had been worsening with the progression of her pregnancy, her tone was a bit snappish.

"Bit or not, why would he declare war now?"

For a moment, the Lady of the West gave a smile that reminded the girl of her own mother with it gentle understanding. "That my child is something that I don't know."

An eerie roar from outside gladdened the heart of the young miko as much as that smile. 'Miroku's out there which means Sango's close behind.' Touching her unborn children yet again, she wished for her husband's comforting presence.

'I know that you always came to save me when I needed you the most Inuyasha. Please don't let me down koibito.' Wrapped in the fog of morose thoughts, Kagome peeked out into the hall once more.

Inside the room, the last closet had been emptied during the impromptu discussion and Shinaki's puzzlement was palpable. "Where is it? I swore that I packed it with my summer clothes..."

Kagome's stormy blue eyes widened at the sound of a curse that would have done Kuroi proud.

"Damn those handmaiden's eyes!! I knew I should have unpacked my own bags!" A chest was flung open and delved into with mounting distress. "Where is it?"

More than a little confused, Kagome went to her mother-in-law's side and took hold of an azure arm. "Lady Shinaki we have to follow everyone else to safety."

Shaking loose of her daughter-in-law, Shinaki went to the next chest as if nothing had been said.

By now, Kagome could hear the howls of some of the pack as they made their way through the outer mansion. The clanging of swords and screams of the dying sent tremors of fear through her heart. Until that moment, she had managed to separate herself from the reality of the conflict going on outside the stone walls with a vain belief that Kouga or someone else would put a stop to it.

The cloying scent of freshly spilled blood that followed in the wake of the long gone servants dashed that dim hope.

'Have I really been so stupid?' she wondered sickly, 'This is the feudal era, everyone is at war here!'

A startled shout ended in a moist gurgling less than a hundred feet away. It made the hairs on her neck prickle with urgency. This time her grip was unrelenting as she knelt down and spun Shinaki around with an insistent demand.

"No matter how much you love it or who gave it you, is your life worth whatever bauble or dress you're looking for?!"

The look she received from the impassioned plea would have felled every ookami on the grounds. Removing the hands on her shoulders, Shinaki stared back at the pregnant girl with barely veiled contempt.

"A bauble?" Thrusting a blue arm deeply into the last chest, her eyes alighted with a knowing purple fire. "Do you honestly believe that I would endanger not only my life but the life of my unborn grandchildren for a tawdry piece of jewelry?"

Shaking her head in exasperation, Kagome stopped and gaped in amazement when a gleaming length of forged death slid out of its nest of cobalt silk. Twirling the sword easily, Shinaki stood to untie the belt of her kimono and let it fall to the floor. "I was under the impression that you thought more highly of me Kagome."

{}

"KAZAANA!!!"

The thunderous roar of the wind tore across the courtyard, ripping up clods of earth and stone as it went. Braced against the destructive vacuum he had unleashed, Miroku resealed his hand at precise moments that allowed him to strike the ookami unconscious while they plummeted through the air.

He was doing his best to incapacitate the swarming tide instead of killing them outright. There were youkai in the war party that he recognized and it pained him to think of casting those misguided souls into an inescapable oblivion.

A snarl over his shoulder was met with the blunt end of his staff.

Unfortunately, his kindness was going unappreciated.

'Ah the burdens of being a holy man are great and the rewards are few.'

"HIRAIKOTSU!!!"

A streak of red flecked ebony shot by him to deal severe, bone-crushing damage to a charging line of wolf youkai. Taking a moment to appreciate the way the taijiya's bottom filled out her slayer's outfit, Miroku amended his last thought.

'For the devout, there is given glimpses of paradise even in adversity.'

He would have smiled at the sight if not for one thing.

Sango was using only one arm to fight.

{}

There are times in life when we willingly eat our words.

Kagome was having that moment.

"Whoa."

Beneath the layers of embroidered satin, Shinaki had worn a form-fitting suit of toughened midnight-blue leather that closely mimicked Sango's taijiya outfit. The chest also produced wrist and shin guards that were strapped in place with a deftness that bespoke of long familiarity.

All Kagome could seem to do was repeat her earlier comment. "Whoa…"

Blue-violet lips quirked up in a smile of understanding as Lady Shinaki sheathed the sword and belted it at her side.

"If you keep standing there staring, the wolves will be picking your hair out of their teeth by nightfall." No-nonsense and to the point, Shinaki twisted her own hair up into a high ponytail. "Get your stuff out of there as well my girl." Two daggers were thrust into the sides of high boots. "We've got a home and loved ones to defend."

Complying quickly, Kagome was stunned yet again when the bow and arrow she retrieved were her own! "When?"

"After you and your son arrived. I've been putting this suit on every morning since the Declaration of War came." Peeking around the edge of the door to survey the halls, Shinaki slipped outside the room after signaling the all's clear behind her. "Leather does not breathe well under silk."

With one eye fixed on their rear, Kagome dimly wondered how many pregnant women found themselves sneaking through a besieged feudal mansion with a Lady who was dressed like Ninja Gaiden.

Once again, none came to mind.

}

Flat on his back and dying, the ookami Erumu tried to figure out what had gone wrong with his plan.

Intent on being the one to slaughter the Dog's mate, he'd managed to slip past the bulk of the guards defending the gates during the ruckus. Using the rooftops, he'd been on his way to the inner mansion when he'd caught the unmistakable aroma of children.

Young children.

Not wanting to share the choice tender bits with the rest of the pack, he had slipped through a garden with the intent of catching at least one or two of the little morsels by surprise and having a snack before completing his task.

For a while, he had thought the wolfen gods were smiling on him because the scent was freshest at the very first paneled partition he came to.

Anticipating the shrill death-screams that only the very youngest of prey could produce, he'd barreled straight into the darkened room.

Erumu's musings faltered when a bubble of blood escaped his lips, signaling that the last breath that burbled up from his crushed lungs.

As Erumu slipped into the next world, he did wonder why the sun had been setting within a closed room.

}

Pressed back to back within a closing ring of feral youkai, Miroku was using that inopportune time to have a serious discussion with Sango.

"When were you going to tell me that you hurt yourself?" Miroku dodged a headshot before responding in kind, all the while hissing irritably at the woman behind him.

"Either sometime after we died or won, whichever came first. Hiraikotsou!!!" The sharpened bone weapon swung in its familiar and deadly arch but to one long used to its power, Miroku noticed a perceptible drop in the force behind it.

"So despite the fact that you're injured and could possibly cripple yourself, you're still going to fight?" Judicious placement of a spiritual barrier caught more than a few ookami by surprise.

"I was almost dead when I fought Inuyasha and he had trouble handling me then!" A few bags of poisons especially mixed with youkai in mind rendered a few more attackers incapacitated.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be no end in sight of the ones who replaced their downed pack-mates.

"You shouldn't be fighting right now. KAZAANA!!" The wind tunnel proved useful yet again in effectively dispatching a number of attackers with copious amounts of loose rubble and logs. "You should be inside with Lady Shinaki and Kagome." The mystical staff took care of another two.

Once again the hiraikotsou swung unerringly, if not strongly. A bit breathless from the exertion, Sango's voice held a dangerous note. "Are you saying that my place is back with the women and I should let the men handle the fighting?"

Suddenly wondering why the idea of throwing himself in the arms of the ravenous wolf pack in front of him was gaining more appeal by the second, Miroku flung out a handful of ofudas with a nervous laugh.

"Of course not my dear taijiya!" With his next honeyed words, the young monk proved himself as adept at evading explosive subjects as he was at avoiding lethal claws.

"It's just that with her condition being so advanced, I couldn't help but worry that our beloved friend would be unable to keep up with the rest of the household."

Once again pressing his back right up against that of the armor-clad woman, his voice rang with genuine concern as he continued, "We know from experience how people often panic in life threatening situations. They might not see her until it was too late."

Knowing that the exterminator would never willingly leave a fray, he hoped that playing upon her sisterly devotion to the young miko would get her to go inside on her own. Tossing out another handful in a seemingly endless supply of ofudas at the mounting hordes, he hunched down before striking with his staff as well.

"Who knows what terrified people will do, especially since Kagome is just a human girl in a houseful of youkai servants. They might accidentally lock her out in their confusion."

While the binding spells had the standard effect he desired, his quiet statement caused something else entirely.

From just beyond his left shoulder came a sound that caused the ring of ofuda-plastered ookami to take an involuntary step back. Upon hearing that inhuman snarl, Miroku almost went with them.

"S-Sango?"

Obsidian tendrils of sweat-dampened hair curled over her and neck as Sango glared murderously towards the main mansion. All traces of hindering injury were gone from her lithe body as she drew out her katana, holding it at the ready in one hand and easily wielding the boomerang in the other.

While battling the minions of Naraku and various demonic forces, Miroku had been face to face with the stuff of nightmares all his life. What he saw in the taijiya's eyes made him clutch his staff defensively.

"Sango?"

Her only answer was to deepen the sound issuing from her throat.

The ring around them became a bit wider.

"Over…my…dead…body!" This time, the path cut by the exterminator's weapon of choice ran straight and true, clearing away anything unfortunate enough to be in-between its massive bulk and the nearest door.

Shooting out one more layer of ofuda-packed cover fire, Miroku struggled to keep up as he was unceremoniously hauled towards the mansion by Sango.

Still making that throaty growl, her voice was harsh, "Keep throwing those things and keep up with me houshi or I'll leave you behind!!" Warning given, she released his robe in order to catch the hiraikotsou on its return.

Flashes of reflective light marked where the blunt edge of her sword smacked more than one unlucky soul unconscious. As Miroku raced to keep up, he idly wondered what his lovely slayer would be like with children of her own to protect.

The thought made him smile inside.

{}

Yellow eyes cracked open slowly, wincing slightly at the pain radiating from a bump on his forehead. Sesshomaru cursed softly and sat up to touch that aching patch of flesh.

At least he tried to.

Metallic clinking accompanied the cessation of the upward movement of his arms, causing his eyes to fly open in surprise. Strong sunlight leaked in through gaps of cloth as a gust of wind buffeted the tent, revealing that his ankles were similarly chained together as well.

A few experimental tugs verified that the metal was enchanted to withstand youkai strength. Around this time, he noticed the curious lightness that marked that his armor and swords were gone as well.

Sesshomaru drew the obvious conclusion that he was a prisoner.

However, he came to the wrong conclusion of who's prisoner he actually was.

Resting both arms over his knees, he gave a rueful smile. "Well I wasn't expecting this of the kokujin. She might just be worthy of her title if she had the good sense to lock me up before I could find her and thank her for the little display of power "

The whisper-soft sound of approaching feet made him whirl with a snarl to face his captor. It died when his nose identified the man whose face was hidden in the shadow caused by the harsh backlight.

"Father. I take it that you've come to barter for my freedom with that ningens sorceress?" Relaxing as much as he could with the confining links on him, Sesshomaru tilted his head to the side. "So what does she want? A cow or a handful of beads maybe? I hear that many ningens are remarkably easy to buy off with such trash."

"Sesshomaru…" There was a gravity to Yamatsu's voice but his son paid it no heed.

"So I take it she's intelligent enough to desire something that has more value?" Tucking his hair behind one ear required the movement of both hands since the length between the cuffs was less than a foot. With a small sigh of boredom, he closed his eyes. "Well what does she want?"

The swish of cloth was all the warning he got before a fist closed in the front of his kimono and hauled him into the air. This time Sesshomaru's eyes were riveted to ones glowing a muted shade of scarlet as Yamatsu whispered tersely, "Niambi wants your life and right now, I'm tempted to give it to her."

}

}

}

Ka: … … Exactly how is a phone book a threat?

Hello, Continental Shipping?

Ka: How could a phone call be so bad?

Yes, my name is Ka and I heard that you handle the transportation needs of every major chicken supplier in North America. I was wondering if I could place a jumbo delivery order through you. I can? Good.

Ka: !!!!OH GOD NOOOOO!!!!

One moment please. So, will you leave Ba alone Ka?

Ka: … … …

Ba: Mistress? Is he supposed to be twitching like that?

Only if he's forgotten how to breathe.

}

A/N: Ah, I bet you can't wait to see how Sessy gets out of this one. Well, neither can I.

Warning, it might be a sec on updates because Youko Kurama is riding me over "Trembling Roses". For any fellow fanfic writers, don't get involved with fictional anime characters unless you're loaded with tranquilizers and sedatives like Mistress Ithilwen.

I should have borrowed a handful from her, or maybe a bagful….

It's also come to my attention concerning Chapter 22 that some readers believed that Miroku and Sango had "relations" in front of a large crowd and that the things Miroku was showing our beloved taijiya were sexual moves.

Umm, no… Despite the contents of Chapter 17, I really do tend to avoid those types of situations between characters. For those who want to bring up "A Brother's Love" that was necessary!!!

The moves referred to by Sango were attack skills that Miroku employed during a friendly little sparring match they had after leaving Midori's sisters.

Why was Miroku in a yukata and not his robes?

If you look closer, Sango repaired it after the training.

Why didn't Murasaki do it?

Because she and her other sisters had something important to attend to, namely Midori. (Besides, Sango was still feeling guilty about jumping down Miroku's throat for one thing and she wasn't going to let him get half-naked in a room full of lovely women for another.)

Each "move" Miroku showed her was actually one that was used on him by the various young women who didn't appreciate his form of "affection". Likewise, Sango's quip that the butt-rubbing hand of his couldn't be infallible all the time was just my homage to various fan arts featuring our lecherous monk grabbing Sesshomaru's posterior in a bit of madcap mistaken identity.

(For fellow yaoi lovers, we know that not all of those Sessy grabs were mistakes. Heehee!)

Sorry for the mix-up over that bit.

About Lady Shinaki, well Kuroi had to get it from someone!

As for Ginta and Hakkaku

Well, that's going to have to resolve itself in time.

After all, "Time heals all wounds and wounds all heels."

That's really how the saying goes…seriously!

}

Next Chapter: I'm either going to finish with Kouga/Inuyasha, Kagome/Shinaki or show you what Lord Enjuku's up to.

Then again, I could just bring up something completely unexpected.

My dears, if you've read this far, you know the answer already.