InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Journey of the soul: The panther devas' plot ❯ Desperate healing ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Most of the characters in this story are the actual work of Rumiko Takahashi. I do not own them in any way.

 

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Chapter 1: Desperate healing

 

There was no way to put into words what passed in the couple in the seconds that followed their realization of the truth. There had not been any betrayal. None of the two had attacked the other. The relief to know their heart had not been wrong mixed with the dread coming with the knowledge that someone else was involved, created a rather sickening mix, a mix that Kikyo, due to her weakened state was unable to bear.

 

At once, all strength left her body and she collapsed forward into Inuyasha's arms. She could feel her life slowly ebb away as the hanyou carefully turned her in his laps, thus allowing her to stare up into his worried face.

 

"I'm... sorry Inuyasha... it seems... I... don't have... much longer... to live," she murmured, trying desperately to keep from drifting away.

 

"NO!!!!!" screamed the hanyou desperately. "Don't give up Kikyo! If we get the jewel then..."

 

He never finished his sentence though as he realized one horrible thought that the miko voiced not a second later. "... Stolen," she said weakly, a resigned smile appearing on her features.

 

Never in his life had Inuyasha felt so powerless. The woman he loved was lying in his arms, dying and there was nothing he could do! Not a thing! If only he had been stronger! If only he had gone and met her halfway to! If only he had seen through that bastard's disguise!

 

"Inuyasha..." whispered Kikyo, drawing him out of his dark musing. "I'm... glad... it wasn't... you."

 

"Well well, aren't you two a pretty sight," said a voice that made then both look up.

 

From the surrounding woods, the shape of a man wearing a white baboon pelt emerged. Due to the mask being presently lowered on his face, most of his features were obscured. His eyes however could be seen very clearly. Cold, piercing red eyes that reached into your very soul and froze it completely and utterly.

 

"Who the fuck are you?" questioned the hanyou defensively.

 

"Now now, is that any way to address someone who has come to offer his help?" chuckled the unknown man darkly.

 

"Your help?" questioned Inuyasha suspiciously.

 

"Indeed. You see I happen to know of a way your sweetheart here may be saved," explained the mysterious man.

 

Before the hanyou could answer though, he was interrupted by Kikyo who tugged on his sleeve insistently. "He has... the... jewel," she panted weakly.

 

At once, understanding flooded Inuyasha as to the identity of the person standing before them. "So it was you!!!!" he growled menacingly. "You're the one who shot those arrows at me and slashed Kikyo!!!!!!!"

 

"Well, since you put it so crudely," snickered the man sinisterly.

 

"BASTARD!!!!!! I'LL KILL YOU!!!" snarled the hanyou viciously.

 

"Need I remind you that if you go after me then your woman will die?" questioned the dark figure, making Inuyasha stop dead in his track.

 

"That's right, she does not have much time left. If you come after me, then you must be sure to defeat me... otherwise, she will die for good," continued the unknown figure.

 

Inuyasha's entire body trembled with barely restrained anger as he realized that his opponent was right. Going after him would mean sacrificing Kikyo and that wasn't something he was ready to do, not after what had just happened.

 

"Speak," he finally hissed through clenched teeth.

 

"A wise decision," answered the unknown man with a satisfied smile that caused Inuyasha to growl menacingly. "If you want to save her then all you have to do is make her drink some of your blood. It will heal her for sure... but of course, there's no telling what might happen next. Some of the side-effects are much worst than death."

 

"You twisted bastard!" growled the hanyou as the figure turned away and disappeared through the woods.

 

"As I recall, I said I knew of a way that might save your sweetheart, not would," he snickered. "Consider this shikon jewel a payment for the information I just gave you. I expect our path will cross again in the near future. Until then... I wish you luck."

 

And with that said, his presence disappeared completely, without leaving so much as a trail to follow. Not wasting anymore time, Inuyasha promptly returned to Kikyo's side and knelt before her.

 

"Kikyo..." he whispered, not daring to ask the question that burned his lips.

 

The miko hardly heard the hanyou's reply. Her life was almost completely gone now, the only thing still holding her in this world was a tiny thread of stubborn determination that was rapidly waning. Through blurry eyes she could see two patches of gold that were looking down at her, filled with silent supplication.

 

She wasn't sure exactly what it was that caused this phenomenon. Maybe it was imminent death, maybe it was the pain she saw in Inuyasha's eyes, maybe it was the realization that she was about to die... but suddenly her mind cleared completely and she could think more clearly than she ever had in her life.

 

She understood many things in this precious second of clarity. She understood that she was going to die. She understood that someone had just taken the jewel and left. She understood how risky drinking Inuyasha's blood would be for her. All of this she understood and yet, all of it seemed somewhat insignificant compared to that one last realization. The realization that she never again would be able to feel Inuyasha's arms wrapped around her. She never would be able to kiss him, to hold him... to bear his children. All the dreams of a normal life spent with him were oozing out of her body along with her very blood. And she abruptly realized that she couldn't let go of this. Her dream... her life, she didn't want to die! She didn't want it all to end here! And so, she made her decision. The decision that would change her life forever.

 

"Do... it," she murmured with the last of her strength.

 

Already, she could feel herself slipping away again. That precious second of clarity was gone and she was sinking more and more deeply into the oblivion of death. Just as she was about to reach the point of no return however, she felt as if liquid fire had been poured down her throat and it brought her back to reality in one of the most agonizing way possible. Her eyes snapped open as she tried to scream, but Inuyasha was pinning her mouth against his self-inflicted wound, forcing more of his blood down her throat.

 

The sensation rapidly began spreading as she swallowed. First, her stomach felt as if it would explode, then her chest, then her arms and legs and finally her head. God the searing pain was unbearable. Her whole body was burning up, how could she not be melting? How could her body not have turned to dust by now? The pain was so great that even unconsciousness fled before it... and still she swallowed.

 

Finally, after an eternity, Inuyasha removed his arm from her mouth, probably deeming she had had enough. Of course, by now, she was beyond caring about such a trivial things. She was writhing on the ground, clawing at her skin, screaming inhumanly, trying desperately to flee from the agony she was currently enduring.

 

Dimly, she became aware of someone trying to restrain her, trying to keep her from harming herself. This caused her struggle to increase even more. And then, she felt it, mixed with the burning sensation, the sort of flex of her mind that was a sure sign that her powers had triggered. Abruptly, the restraints were gone and she was free again. Free to claw, to twist and to scream... And god did she scream. After having directed themselves at the force restraining her, her powers were now trying to purify the youkai blood that had just entered her system.

 

The two contradicting powers met one against the other in a fierce battle that only increased the miko's already unbearable agony. She could feel the rising pressure resulting from the growing battle between the two elements causing her to grow stiffer than a rock. And then, abruptly, everything exploded in a fantastical release of energy. The ray of energy rose higher and higher into the sky as Kikyo screamed louder and louder. And the miko fell still, unconsciousness finally coming to claim her.

 

******

 

It was a very somber Inuyasha that reached the outskirts of the village that morning. His hands were badly burned from where Kikyo had accidentally purified him. Yet he hardly felt it. Truth be told, he hardly felt anything at all. The display he had just witnessed left him with an incredible sense of foreboding twisting his gut. Even if Kikyo was still alive and breathing in his arms... was her mind still intact? Would she even regain consciousness?

 

He gradually became aware that someone was blocking his path ahead. Raising his head, he noticed a group of villagers looking at him warily.

 

"What did you do to Kikyo-sama hanyou?" questioned one of them angrily.

 

Inuyasha merely looked at him with dull eyes, not even finding in himself the will to fight back. All that mattered was the unconscious body cradled against him, breathing softly. Even if Kikyo had calmed down for the moment, he knew the struggle was still going on inside of her. He could smell it in her scent. Suddenly an arm reached and tried to take the miko's body from his grip.

 

Instantly, his head snapped toward the human who had had the audacity of touching her. He let out a primitive growl and the man instantly backed away, allowing him to continue on his way. The villagers parted way before him then, unwilling to threaten him as long as he had Kikyo's body in his arms. He didn't give a damn about the reason, but at least it allowed him to continue on toward his destination.

 

After a few minutes of him walking and them following, he finally reached the house he had been searching for. Not bothering with formalities, he simply entered and came face to face with a young girl of ten preparing breakfast. When she saw him carrying her sister, her mouth instantly dropped open and she let out a strangled cry of surprise.

 

"Sister!" exclaimed Kaede, voice filled with concern.

 

"She... she needs... to rest," he muttered simply.

 

He had been about to say that Kikyo was fine, but he knew in his heart that nothing could be further from the truth. She was currently struggling desperately to stay alive even as the youkai blood inside her changed her in unimaginable ways. Even if she did recover from this... would she be the same? Would she be able to retain her sanity? So many questions... and so little answers.

 

"Inuyasha!" snapped the child, thus bringing his dark musing to a screeching halt.

 

"W... What?" he stammered.

 

"Where is my sister hurt?" questioned Kaede firmly.

 

"Y... you? Treat her?" hesitated the hanyou, plainly unconvinced by the girl's medical abilities.

 

"WHERE!?" repeated Kaede in a tone that was so sharp and authoritative that Inuyasha could not do anything but answer.

 

"Her back, she was slashed," he said stiffly.

 

Not wasting anymore time, the girl promptly spread a thick blanket on the cold hard wood and motioned for the hanyou to come closer.

 

"Sit her down over here. I'll need you to hold her while I check on her injury," she explained calmly.

 

As Inuyasha moved to obey the ten years old's instructions, he couldn't help but be amazed at her actions. The child he had come to know was a sweet and still innocent one. More often than not, he had seen her laugh and dance with the other children of the village. Yet, the figure she was presenting now was... totally unexpected.

 

"I didn't know you knew so much about medicine," he said as the girl returned with the needed supply to treat her sister's wound.

 

"Who do you think you're talking to?" she answered coldly. "Sister's been training me for a year now. She's forced me to assist her with her most critical operations to allow me to get used to the sight of blood... so of course I know about healing."

 

"I... see," answered the hanyou. Well he had to admit it made sense, when one knew Kikyo at least. The woman was kind, but she was one of the strictest person he knew so of course she would have pushed her sister to learn her art.

 

Deciding not to say anything more, he sat in front of the unconscious miko and pulled her to him so that her head was resting on his shoulder and her arms hung limply behind him. With her sister safely settled, Kaede began cutting through the fabric of her uniform with a knife until her back was completely exposed.

 

Thus faced with the injury for the first time, the child marked a pause. She cast a suspicious glance at Inuyasha's claws before returning her gaze to the gashes. She then turned her eyes to the hanyou himself and fixed him with a look that was so intense and penetrating that it caused Inuyasha to stiffen slightly in discomfort.

 

"What?" he growled defensively.

 

"Nothing," replied the girl while returning to her treatment.

 

Truth be told, it didn't take her very long to notice something wrong with her sister's wound. The four gashes were deep, very deep in fact and yet... they were barely bleeding. Even as she washed the area with a clean cloth, only a few more drops of blood oozed out of the wound. With four marks like this her sister should have bled to death and yet... she was still breathing. Questions popped inside her head, but she pushed them all back. Now wasn't the time to be distracted by uncertainty. Her sister needed treatment and she would provide it.

 

"This isn't good, the wounds are too close together, I won't be able to stitch them," she mumbled, more to herself than for the hanyou before her.

 

"What does it mean? Is she going to be okay?" questioned Inuyasha, visibly concerned by this new development.

 

"If she made it this far then I doubt she'll die... the problem is that she should be dead already," answered the child with a definite edge in her voice.

 

She watched with satisfaction the hanyou avert her gaze from her, a sure sign that he knew exactly what had happened. Satisfied that she'd get her answers once everything was done, she began preparing a poultice that would keep the wounds from getting infected. It was a simple recipe really and also the very first her sister had shown her. When applied however, the thing stung like hell, she had experienced it first hand a few years back when she had fallen down and cut herself on a rock.

 

Once the preparation was complete, she started to soak long bandages in the solution thus created and to wrap them as best she could around her sister's shoulder and torso. A few minutes later and everything was done and all that remained was to lie Kikyo down on her belly and take her out of her ruined uniform. First however...

 

"My sister's gonna need some privacy for the next part," she said to Inuyasha, pointing to the soaked clothing Kikyo was wearing.

 

Not uttering a word, the hanyou merely stood up and walked out the door, at once being confronted with a crowd of villagers that all shot him a death-glare, as if he had been the one responsible for this. Crossing his arms over his chest, he merely offered the people his traditional "Keh!" before leaning against the wall in wait.

 

"Well?" questioned one nameless villager aggressively.

 

"Well what?" shot back Inuyasha.

 

"Aren't you even going to tell us if Kikyo-sama's going to be okay or not?" explained the man.

 

"And why should I tell you?" retorted the hanyou, his patience rapidly waning.

 

"Why you! For all we know you could have been the one to do this!" snapped the villager.

 

That was the last straw holding Inuyasha's temper in check. With a primitive growl, he bounded toward the man who had just spoken and grabbed him by the throat. Lifting him effortlessly in the air he fixed him with a cold and emotionless glare.

 

"I dare you to repeat what you've just said," he barked, beyond angry by now.

 

"Inuyasha!!!" suddenly snapped Kaede, making him turn with his quarry in hand. "I'd appreciate it if you were to keep the number of casualties down! As for the rest of you, go home, my sister will be okay. And it's all thanks to him bringing her back, otherwise she'd be dead by now."

 

There was a minute of absolute silence as the crowd of villagers absorbed the information and then, all at once, they breathed a sigh of relief. Letting the man fall unceremoniously to the ground, the hanyou turned toward Kaede who simply motioned for him to follow her inside, which he promptly did, as much to get out of the villager's line of sight as to once more set his eyes on the sleeping miko.

 

Once he had crossed the door, he could see that Kikyo was now covered with a thick blanket and her head was resting comfortably on a pillow. Her ruined uniform was lying in a pile near the door, most likely to be disposed of later. Sitting on her sister's left, Kaede pointed to the spot on the right and the hanyou sat down.

 

"Now then... I believe you have some serious explaining to do," said the girl with a pointed glare.

 

Heaving a huge sigh of discouragement, Inuyasha began his story.

 

******

 

Silence reigned supreme when the hanyou finished telling his tale. A pensive frown appeared on Kaede's face as she took all of this in. That explained pretty much everything. The reason her sister was still alive with such a wound, the way the wound was behaving. Everything was now falling into place perfectly. However, Kaede couldn't help but feel extremely uncertain about the coming future.

 

"Do you know... the side-effects my sister will have to endure?" she asked after a while.

 

"That bastard was pretty vague. All he said was that some were worst than death," muttered Inuyasha, plainly as concerned as she currently was.

 

"So basically, all we can do... is wait and pray she'll be strong enough to come back to us," she summarized darkly.

 

And wait they did. Morning slipped by without any noticeable change in the miko's condition. As afternoon began to give way to evening however, a terrible fever struck Kikyo. Her breathing grew labored and she began to sweat profusely, but she did not regain consciousness. All night long the two remained awake, forcing liquid and medicine down the woman's throat to fight off the infection and to prevent dehydration.

 

When daylight once again peaked over the horizon, things took a turn for the worst. Kikyo started growing restless. It began with slight moans of discomfort in the early morning to full outright delirium at midday. By this point, it took everything Inuyasha had to restrain her movements and prevent her from hurting herself.

 

"Inuyasha hold her mouth steady! I'll try making her drink this sleeping potion!" ordered Kaede to the struggling hanyou.

 

"Easy... for you... to say!" replied Inuyasha, grunting with the effort of holding the miko in place. "She's grown... almost... as strong as I."

 

"All the more reason for us to put her back to sleep fast!" exclaimed the child as she got closer.

 

Finally deciding to completely disregard the miko's injury, Inuyasha pinned Kikyo down under him and managed to immobilize her arms with one hand. With his other, he forced her mouth open as Kaede dropped her sleeping potion in. Reflexively, Kikyo swallowed the liquid as it was poured directly down her throat. The effect was almost immediate. The body trapped beneath him instantly went limp and Kikyo's breathing returned to normal.

 

"Pretty... damn efficient," panted the hanyou.

 

"Yes well, that's the strongest recipe I know. I gave her enough to put a horse to sleep for a week. It should keep her still for a while," answered Kaede, visibly spent as well.

 

"I hope I didn't reopen her wound. I roughed her up pretty bad," commented Inuyasha with a hint of concern.

 

"I'll check it out," replied the child, immediately starting to peel off the bandages off her sister's shoulder.

 

She froze in surprise when she saw the state of the wounds. Yesterday, there had been four gaping gashes where her sister had been slashed... now though, not a trace remained to be seen of those. It was as if the whole thing had never even happened in the first place.

 

"It's gone..." she murmured, astonished.

 

"What do you mean?" questioned Inuyasha, puzzled by this rather cryptic sentence.

 

"Well look for yourself, the wound is completely gone... there's not even a trace of it left!" exclaimed Kaede.

 

Carefully gazing at the wounded spot, Inuyasha could only gape when he saw that the girl was absolutely right. This made him gulp somewhat uneasily as he realized one terrible truth that he had not dared to look at until now.

 

"She's gained... a youkai's healing ability," he whispered faintly.

 

Just then, his gaze crossed that of Kaede's and he could see the same question that tortured his mind dancing in her eyes. What else did Kikyo gain from the youkai blood she had ingested?

 

******

 

One week now. One week of worry, care and uncertainties... and still Kikyo remained unconscious. Luckily, the fever and delirium had calmed down pretty rapidly. Kaede's sleeping potion had worked wonders and the woman had not fallen prey to a relapse yet. One other thing was that the miko's scent had started to stabilize. Up to now, he could smell changes in it just about every minute of every day. Now though, it hadn't changed since early morning and it was currently midday.

 

Lying on the roof as Kaede tended to the basic hygienic needs of the unconscious woman's body, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel apprehensive toward the near future. If Kikyo's scent had stabilized, it likely meant that the changes were now over and that she'd be regaining consciousness soon. But how would she behave when she did? Would she still be herself? Would she be turned into a mindless animal? Would she go crazy? Would she even open her eyes again?

 

All those questions kept dancing into the hanyou's mind, causing him to feel increasingly sick in the stomach. Likely he would have lost his lunch had a sudden yelp of surprise and a crash emanating from the house had not brought his train of thought to a screeching halt. Instantly, the hanyou bounded down from his perch and burst through the door, only freeze dead in his tracks at the scene before him.

 

A completely naked Kikyo was currently holding a squirming Kaede by the neck, quite effectively choking her. At his entrance, the miko instantly whipped her head toward him and a low rumbling sound started emanating from her throat and her lips curled up into a vicious snarl.

 

"Kikyo... What..." began Inuyasha, but he didn't have time to say anything more.

 

Brutally throwing her sister against the nearest wall, the woman threw herself at him with an indistinct primitive scream. Not knowing what to do, the hanyou sidestepped the attack, only to be met with another immediately after.

 

"Kikyo, what are you doing? Don't you recognize me?" he asked while avoiding yet another lunge from the woman.

 

Not really surprisingly, the miko didn't answer, she just kept attacking him again and again. Luckily for Inuyasha, the blows were clumsy ones and presented little threat to his nimble form. Still, he knew this little game could not last forever. One way or the other, he had to subjugate the woman before something bad happened. It didn't take a genius to understand that they were now faced with one of the dreadful side-effects the baboon-clad character had talked about. Kikyo's awareness had been reduced to that of a mere animal and unless they managed to find a way to calm her down, they'd never be able to reawaken the woman sleeping inside.

 

As he jumped out of the way of yet another blow, something that hadn't had time to register suddenly clicked in his mind. The way the miko was moving was like a human being. She was walking on her two feet and using her hands to slash at him in a primitive mimic of his own fighting style. This gave him hope that her human psyche may not be buried as deep as he had originally thought. If anything, all it needed to come back to the surface was a single trigger. The problem was to actually find it.

 

"Kaede, are you still there?" he asked without taking his eyes off his opponent.

 

"Y... Yeah," wheezed the child, still recovering from her choking at the hand of her sister.

 

"Do you know if Kikyo had anything she valued? A trinket? Something that might have been important to her?" he questioned frantically.

 

"I... I think so," she answered.

 

"Good then find it! If we show it to her then maybe her human mind will come back to the surface and it'll snap her out of this daze," he ordered.

 

Seeing the child scramble to her feet out of the corner of his eye, Inuyasha returned his full attention to the woman in front of him. He noticed with some degree of satisfaction that Kikyo was now showing very definite signs of exhaustion. Sweat was dripping down her face and she was panting laboriously. Her eyes still showed that cold determination of someone who was fighting for her life though... and that made her all the more dangerous.

 

"Goddamnit! Don't you realize we don't want to hurt you?" snapped the hanyou in irritation.

 

The only effect his words had on the woman was to cause her to lunge at him once again. This time however, instead of just jumping out of the way, Inuyasha caught Kikyo's arm and used her momentum to bring her to the ground. Not allowing her time to recover, he immediately crashed down on her, quite effectively pinning her down. She struggled futilely beneath him but, lying on her belly as she was with him on top of her, there was just nothing she could do.

 

"I got her! Kaede now's your chance!" he said urgently.

 

Before him, he saw the child appear with a small mirror in her hands. "Sister... please, do you recognize this? Do you recognize this mirror?" asked the girl timidly.

 

All lost in her struggle, the miko didn't even notice Kaede in front of her nor did she even look at the presented object. "Sister... please, I beg you. You have to calm down," begged Kaede again, tears coming to her eyes.

 

Neither the child nor Inuyasha knew for sure what exactly triggered the reaction. Maybe it was the tears staining Kaede's cheeks, maybe it was the mirror she finally noticed, but abruptly, her struggle ceased. Her eyes which had been empty up to now suddenly started to light up with awareness. Very slowly, she started looking left and right, taking in her surroundings as if for the first time.

 

Noticing the drastic change in behavior, the hanyou took the risk of releasing his hold on her. Kikyo slowly got to her feet and made her way to the crying Kaede and started to run her fingers on her face gingerly, as if searching for something. Then, with one hand still on her sister's face, the miko started to touch her own face with her other hand.

 

Her features then became creased with a frown of very deep concentration, as if she was trying to remember something buried deep within herself. Finally, she let out an indistinct grunt of annoyance and wrenched the mirror out of Kaede's hands and brought it up to stare at her reflection.

 

Long minutes, she remained as she was, looking at herself and running her fingers on the contour of her visage. Finally, she turned toward her sister and looked intensely at her. Again she scrutinized the face of the girl visibly in search of something yet, neither Inuyasha nor Kaede could possibly fathom what. Fortunately, the answer came to her in a word that Kikyo uttered in a hesitant and very strained voice.

 

"F... ami... ly?" she said as if every syllable was a struggle to pronounce.

 

Hope at once radiated in the pair as they heard that one hesitant word. Tears flooded the girl's cheeks as a bright smile lit up her features. "Yes," she whispered faintly.

 

"S... ister?" asked the woman again, the word coming out slightly easier this time.

 

"Yes," answered Kaede softly, her heart hammering in her chest.

 

"Kaede?" inquired Kikyo again.

 

This time there was no struggle to get the word out but it was plain from Kikyo's expression that the connection between the name and the face was not entirely assured. Still, it was more than encouraging enough to cause the two people present to breathe an immense sigh of relief, which had the unexpected effect to draw her attention back to Inuyasha. The moment Kikyo's eyes fell on him, she jerked as if struck by a lightning bolt and she let go of the mirror in favor of clutching her head in pain.

 

"Kikyo!" "Sister!" both Inuyasha and Kaede exclaimed at the same time while instantly jumping to the suffering miko's aid.

 

Draping an arm around the woman's shoulders, Inuyasha helped Kikyo settle down gently as Kaede kept calling her sister's name desperately. Luckily, the crisis did not last very long and a few minutes later, Kikyo stopped moaning in pain. Opening her eyes, she looked confusedly to the two people present and then at her surroundings before frowning in puzzlement.

 

"Kaede? Inuyasha? I... What have I been... doing?" panted the exhausted miko.

 

At once both the child and the hanyou let out the breath they had been holding since the incident began and they collapsed on the ground in a heap. Right now, the entire world could have exploded outside the hut and none of the occupants would have even noticed. Kikyo was back, Kikyo had regained her sanity and at this very moment, that was all that mattered.

 

"Nothing Kikyo," whispered the hanyou. "Nothing at all."