InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kikyo's lonely journey ❯ Strength ( Chapter 7 )

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

Thanks to Kikyo's desperate plan, both she and Susune have been able to escape the unknown youkai's clutches... at least for a time. However, this brush with death did not leave the pair unaffected. Faced with Susune's acceptance concerning her most well-kept secret, Kikyo finds herself unable to deny her heart anymore and tells the child everything. With demons that had been haunting her for years finally put to rest and a new friend to both support and help her... a new challenge now arises for Kikyo. She must mount a counter-attack against the youkai that have been pursuing them and the only people she can turn to... are the very people she had hoped to never see again.

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 05.18.2006 | Updated On: 06.11.2006 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 270 | Status: Work In Progress

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 6: Strength

There was no possible way to describe what Susune felt at this very moment, as she contemplated the crippled body that lay before her, riddled with arrows. Tears were falling freely down her cheeks as her still recovering heart shattered once more. Ever since her village's destruction, Kikyo had been the person who had kept her whole, if in a rather... peculiar way. But now, she was gone, forever. This was more than she could bear.

Behind her, the blue-clad youkai watched with a suspicious frown the display before him.

"Strange, I would have expected more out of this woman," he thought, slightly confused.

Finally, he shrugged in indifference and snapped his fingers. Immediately, two other youkai with bows in hand emerged from their hiding places in the woods and flanked him.

"Kill the girl," he ordered simply and they nodded in understanding.

They both notched an arrow and took aim just as Susune turned to look at them with blazing eyes. She then did something completely unexpected. She stood up as straight as she could and moved in front of Kikyo. Her features set in determination, she fixed the blue-clad youkai with an unwavering gaze and spoke.

"Go ahead then, kill me. But I will not give you the satisfaction of hearing me cry," she said in a determined tone.

Kikyo had died trying her hardest to protect her even though the situation was desperate. So the least she could do was honor her by accepting death with grace. Her confidence seemed to catch the youkai off guard, because they looked at each other, suddenly uncertain.

"I applaud your courage little girl, but don't think for a minute that it will change your fate," replied the leader.

"I never expected it to," she shot back immediately.

The blue-clad youkai looked at her for a few seconds, as if gaging her, before he motioned once more to his men. Susune tensed as they aimed their weapons at her. Determination or no, staring at death in the face was definitely a frightening experience. As they let their arrows fly, she closed her eyes and waited for the pain that would tell her that they had hit home. Strangely though, nothing came.

Thinking herself dead already, she opened one eye and blinked in confusion at what she saw. A strange blue semi-transparent dome had appeared out of nowhere and was surrounding both her and Kikyo. At the foot of it lay the two arrows that had been meant for her.

"What..." she uttered, not understanding what on earth had just happened.

As it was, she did not have to wait long before a voice coming from behind her caused her to whirl around so abruptly that she almost fell to the ground.

"It would seem..." Kikyo began as she propped herself on her knees. "That you have failed."

Everyone stared at the miraculously revived miko with slack jaws. No one could understand how she could even be alive, riddled with arrows as she was. It was eventually the leader of the band who voiced what was on everyone's mind.

"No one could possibly survive with that many arrows lodged in his body," he murmured absently. "Who and what are you?" he asked firmly.

"That is not any of your business," answered the miko while gesturing with her right arm.

Before anyone could react, six soul collectors whizzed through the trees and wrapped themselves around both her and Susune. They then proceeded to lift them off the ground and carry them away. The girl, who had yet to recover from her initial shock, looked at the creatures encircling her with eyes growing a bit too wild and frantic for the miko's taste.

"Susune!" she said in a firm and level voice.

The child's gaze instantly focused on her. For a time, fear danced wildly in her eyes, but it eventually melted under the miko's cool gaze.

"K... Kikyo-sama, what..." she started, but the miko cut her off.

"Save your questions for later. Now I need to concentrate, so stay calm and, whatever happens, do not make the slightest sound," she spoke in a level tone.

Down on the ground, the blue-clad youkai watched helplessly as the pair rose higher and higher above the trees and out of his reach. There was not a thing he could have done. The barrier put up by this miko might have looked flimsy, but he just knew that nothing he had in his possession was strong enough to break it. And so, he did the only thing he could. He watched as the two rose up in the sky and hoped that he could somehow manage to follow them until they landed again.

But he was no fool. This woman had already proven too resourceful to allow such a thing to happen. And, sure enough, when the pair reached the peak of their ascension, they were suddenly surrounded by a bright sphere of light. It stayed like this for a few seconds before it simply shrunk right back into nothingness, leaving not a trace for them to follow. The youkai snorted, half-amused, half-irritated by the unexpected development before turning away.

"Move out!" he ordered and his henchmen promptly disappeared through the woods.

"You win this time Kikyo," he murmured. "But I guarantee you, next time, things will be different."

******

Susune felt a bit dizzy when the soul collectors put her gently on the ground. She wasn't sure what had just happened, only that a bright light had surrounded the two of them and that now they were... elsewhere. Before her, Kikyo was dropped in a similar fashion, but whatever she had done seemed to have taken an awful lot out of her because her legs gave way immediately after touching the ground.

"Kikyo-sama!" exclaimed the girl in alarm.

The miko hardly heard Susune's cry. The technique she had used to transport them to safety had exhausted all but a fraction of her spiritual powers, making her too weak to even move. Through blurry eyes, she saw the girl's form hovering over her, a concerned expression on her face. She was vaguely aware that Susune was talking to her, but it was already too late, she had already surrendered to unconsciousness.

The sun was very near its peak by the time Kikyo's eyes fluttered open. The fog of exhaustion still hung heavy on her mind despite the fact that she had slept easily six times longer than usual. Shaking her head groggily, she slowly sat up and looked around.

The first thing she noticed was Susune sitting against a nearby tree, fast asleep. With her kimono thorned and travel-worn, hairs that were beginning to develop a personality of their own and numerous scratches on her face and hands, the girl really looked the worse for wear. Still, considering all that had happened last night, it was a miracle to even be alive.

As she started to examine her surroundings further, a puzzled frown began to appear on her face. Something about this place looked disturbingly... familiar. The way the trees were disposed, the shape and size of their branches, the small bush growing on her left... she had seen all of this before, she was sure of it.

"Where on earth have I..." she mused but trailed off as the truth hit her like a lightning bolt.

Due to the sheer amount of spiritual energy needed to use her technique, she had not really been able to focus clearly on their destination. The only thing she remembered thinking was that she wanted to get Susune to safety. But now that she recognized the place, she could hardly believed that she had chosen it in the first place. This was the very clearing where it had all started, the very place where she had renounced her claim on Inuyasha. If she had not been so surprised, she would have laughed at the sheer irony of the situation.

"Kikyo-sama, you're okay!"

The familiar voice made her whirl around. Somewhere in the midst of her stupor, the child had awakened and she was now looking at her with a relieved look on her face. Relieved yet very strained. Despite the child's obvious efforts to hide it, fear was plain on her features. Though fear of what, Kikyo wasn't sure. Susune had seen her consume dead souls, had seen her control her soul collector and had gotten over that. So what on earth could the child still be afraid of now?

The answer to this came about a second later when Kikyo spotted what lay beside the child. As if she needed any confirmation, she looked down at chest and legs and almost slapped herself for being so blind to the truth. The girl had removed the arrows while she slept and, from the looks of it, she had not missed the peculiar composition of her body.

Heaving a huge sigh of discouragement, Kikyo made her way to the girl and sat in front of her. She remained quiet for quite some time. So many things needed to be covered for the girl to understand that she had no idea where to start. Giving Susune's tense features a considering look, she decided that maybe soothing the child's fears should be the first order of business.

"Susune, last night you said to me that your heart was telling you to stay with me, right?" she asked carefully.

Susune blinked at the unexpected question, but nodded nonetheless.

"And what about now? Is it telling you that I'm a fearful being who only waits for the opportune time to kill you?" she continued.

"NO!" replied the girl instantly and quite vehemently. "It's just that... those youkai were after me... and you controlling those serpent things... and your body made of dirt... I just... I just... I don't understand anything anymore!!!" she exclaimed before bursting into tears.

Kikyo watched the girl cry her heart out, feeling her own constrict painfully in her chest. She couldn't even begin to imagine the suffering Susune must be enduring right now. Her entire family was dead, powerful youkai were hot on her tail and the only person she could turn to... was her, a cold and distant miko who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Anger started to rise within her. Anger at the unfairness of life, anger at those who had caused Susune's village's destruction and, most of all, anger at herself for her own cowardice. Because she had been afraid of being rejected, she had done the rejection herself and by doing so, she had hurt not only Susune, but herself as well.

"I will not run any longer," she thought, feeling a new fiery determination fill her being.

Without giving herself the time to hesitate, she wrapped her arms around the crying girl and cradled her in a comforting embrace. Whatever Susune had expected, it was definitively not that because her sobs instantly died out.

"Kikyo... sama?" she inquired timidly, visibly unsure of how she should react to this unexpected act of kindness.

At once, the tiny little voice that the miko knew all too well began to whisper its poison in the back of Kikyo's mind, making fear and doubt spring forth. But this time, she did not listen. Instead, she turned around and lashed at it until the whispers turned to whimpers and then, she crushed it beneath her foot and snuffed it out of existence.

"I'll protect you Susune. I swear to you, no matter what the cost, I will protect you," she whispered fiercely.

And then, she too began to cry.

******

Sometime and a lot of tears later, the pair sat comfortably against a tree in complete silence. The miko had just finished telling her tale to Susune and the child was currently in the process of digesting the vast amount of information that she had just been fed with.

"So Kikyo-sama... you're not... sick?" she asked hesitantly, making the woman blink in surprise.

Among the countless questions Susune could have asked, this one was definitely not the first she would have expected. But she answered it nonetheless.

"No, I suppose I'm not," she replied softly.

"And... you're not going to... die?" continued the girl, choking a bit on the last word.

Kikyo's eyes widened slightly. Despite everything she had just learned, Susune's main concern still remained the same. She wanted her to live. The miko couldn't help but feel her heart warm up at this. She had almost forgotten what it felt to have someone care about you.

"Don't worry, Susune," she answered while draping an arm around the child's shoulders. "I'm not planning on leaving this world anytime soon."

This seemed to be the answer the girl had been hoping for because her shoulders immediately sagged in relief. "Thank god," she whispered almost inaudibly.

Long minutes passed before Susune decided to speak again, this time choosing a completely different subject.

"Kikyo-sama... will the youkai from last night come after me again?" she questioned fearfully.

"I'm afraid that it's a very likely possibility," answered the miko, her features darkening. "As it is, they are probably searching for us as we speak," she added somberly.

"But why me? I never did anything to anger them! I didn't even know they existed until last night!" exclaimed the child in alarm and frustration.

"They do not have anything against you personally Susune. What bothers them is your ability to see clouds around people," explained Kikyo.

"I don't understand. I thought everyone could see them," replied the girl in confusion.

"Not so, Susune. To be able to see auras around people is a gift that very few can claim to have. Your village was filled with them, so that's why they attacked it and slaughtered everyone. That's also why they will keep coming after you until they finish what they started," said the miko in a soft voice.

"But why? Even if it's a rare gift, why does it bother them so much?!" exclaimed Susune, definitively frustrated this time.

Kikyo smiled sadly at this. The girl was right absolutely right. Sensors were so few in number that the threat they posed was close to nonexistent. Despite all this however, someone was still willing to go through all the trouble of eradicating them just because they might eventually interfere in whatever plan they had set into motion.

"Do you remember the monk last night? If I remember correctly, you said that he had no cloud right?" inquired the miko.

"That's right," agreed Susune. "But what does this have to do with anything," she questioned again, obviously not understanding where this was going.

"You see, these youkai have found a way to disguise themselves using a special stone. With it, they become almost impossible to detect so they can easily mingle with humans and..." answered Kikyo and trailed off when Susune's abruptly jumped to her feet, her face livid with rage.

"Is that why they destroyed my village?" she asked angrily. "They killed everyone, my friends, my family, everyone just because we could see through their disguise?"

And, just as suddenly as it had flared, her anger receded and she fell back down to her knees. "I cannot forgive them Kikyo-sama!" she whispered while clenching her fists so hard that they trembled. "There has to be a way to make them pay for what they did!" she exclaimed.

The miko watched as the flames of revenge burned brightly inside the girl's eyes. It was easy to see that this girl wanted justice... no matter what the cost. It was understandable, in a way, but not like this. Susune was allowing her desire for revenge to cloud everything else.

"Tell me Susune, will killing every one of those responsible for the attack on your village resurrect your parents?" asked the miko.

Susune jerked as if physically struck. Her mouth opened and closed in surprise, but no words came out.

"Tell me Susune, what would they want the most, for you to try and be happy or for you to blindly seek revenge?" she questioned before the girl had had a chance to recover from the first blow.

This seemed to have the desired effect because the flames of revenge died out in the girl's eyes.

"They would... want me to be happy," she answered softly as the tension drained from her body.

This relapse lasted but a moment before a new fire, both stronger and brighter, replaced the one that had just died down. This time though, instead of consuming everything in its wake, the flame merely burned brightly, filling Susune with the strength and determination she needed to get back on her feet.

"But I know they wouldn't be proud to see me run away in fear. I know that they would want me to stand and fight," she said, her voice strong and steady.

Kikyo smiled and nodded in satisfaction before standing up. "Then that's what we'll do Susune. We're going to fight... and we're going to win!"