InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Metamorphosis ❯ Divide... ( Chapter 33 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or any of the publicly known characters, plot, etc.  I’m just renting them from Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc.   I do own the plot of this story and any original characters I’ve created.  I will make no money from this fic; I write for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my readers.


Divide…


Inuyasha scowled at the crowd of humans milling around and sneaking glances at him when they thought he wasn’t looking.  Two days had passed since the Inu-gang left Kaede’s village on another destination-less shard hunt.  And despite his protests, they had ended up doing what they always did: helping people.  What used to bother him about this was the time wasted, but that was no longer really an issue with most if not all of the jewel in Naraku’s possession.  Now, he just hated being among this many nervous and suspicious humans.  

“Okaa-san!  Look at his cute ears!” a small voice called from behind him.  The parent quickly shushed the child, but Inuyasha still had to smirk.  In this era, only the truly innocent would call a hanyou’s ears cute.  This village wasn’t so bad; they just seemed naturally distrustful of outsiders.  He didn’t expect any problems if they stayed overnight.  Standing, he went to see how the others were doing with their exorcism.  He waggled his ears as he walked away, enjoying the squeal of excitement from the little girl.  

“Aw, how adorable!” a familiar feminine voice chirped, causing his face to redden rapidly.  “You wouldn’t be showing off these to other women, now would you?” Kagome teased, reaching a hand up to deftly finger one of the fuzzy appendages.  “Should I be jealous?”  

“S-shut up, wench!” he barked, swatting her arm away.  “Why are you here?” he asked petulantly when her giggling had subsided.  

“I was looking for you.  We finished the exorcism.”  

“Good.”  

“Don’t crab at me!  I was thinking we could go on a walk tonight, but if you’re too grumpy…”  

“Keh,” he replied, brightening immediately.  They hadn’t been able to steal more than five minutes alone since returning from the modern era, and a midnight ‘walk’ sounded divine.  His mood was about fifty times better already!  It didn’t last; it fell again as soon as they came within sight of their friends and spied two men speaking animatedly with Miroku and Sango.  The men appeared panicked, pleading, and Inuyasha didn’t need to hear the conversation to know what they were talking about.  Ah, crap.

“What’s wrong, Miroku-sama?” Kagome inquired, and Inuyasha was glad to detect some reluctance in her voice.  He wasn’t the only one concerned that their evening plans might get sidetracked.  

“The villages these gentlemen hail from both have problems with rogue youkai.  They came here seeking aid.”  

“My village is worse off!” one of the men cried.  “Help us first!”  

“No!” the other noisily rebutted.  “We are beset by the most horrible of youkai!  Come to our aid first!”  

“Gentlemen, please!” Miroku yelled, silencing the two adversaries, at least momentarily.  Sighing, he rubbed his temples as the men continued to stare each other down.  It looked like a fistfight would break out before long.  It is as they say: fear makes enemies of those who would be friends.  

“Unfortunately,” he continued, “my friends and I constitute the only group here adept at slaying youkai.  However!” he shouted, stilling the already agitated tongues of the two angry men.  “We are large enough in number that we can split up and help both your villages at the same time.”  

“I get the taijiya,” the first man hastily declared, leaving Miroku quite taken aback by his demanding attitude.  I wonder if the saying was not ‘fear makes jerks of men, period.’  

“Fine,” the other said, “then the houshi is coming with me.”  

“Would you two shut the fuck up?!”  

All eyes turned toward the new voice, and two sets of them widened at the sight of the silver-haired hanyou.  

“Ah!  Another youkai!”  

“Relax,” Miroku ordered, “he is my friend.  They both are.”  

Now the men noticed Kagome as well, and if one hanyou made them uncomfortable, it was clear that two made it exponentially worse.  That was too damn bad, since Miroku wasn’t about to propose a separation along gender lines, especially since Inuyasha and Kagome were obviously looking for some time together.  He didn’t want to spend a day or two alone with Inuyasha.  Between worrying, being pissed off, and grouching, the hanyou would make the trip absolutely miserable.  Not to mention the fact that he would spend the whole time worrying about Sango.  No, those pairings were out of the question, and that meant convincing one of these men to accept aid from two hanyou.  Oh, this’ll be fun.

“Follow me, gentlemen,” he said, seeking to spare the feelings of his friends.  “Let’s go discuss this over a bottle of sake.”  

“Bakas,” Sango muttered angrily under her breath as they departed.  Inuyasha nodded in agreement, then snuck a sideways glance at Kagome.  She was trying not to let the prejudice bother her; that much was obvious.  She seemed to be succeeding for the most part, her scent only slightly gloomy.  She would never be completely immune to the insults and intolerance.  Hell, it still got to him sometimes, and he had been dealing with it for his whole life.  By the time the three men returned, it was early afternoon and the remainder of the Inu-gang had taken shelter in the shade provided by some trees at the edge of the village.  Miroku appeared sober, but the other two were well on their way to total inebriation.  Already they were teetering on their feet, and the monk kept a firm hand on each shoulder to keep them walking straight.  He led them across the road to an inn, and after emerging alone a few minutes later strolled to join his companions.  

“What’s the deal, bouzu?” Inuyasha grumbled, more than a hint of threat in his tone.  Miroku held up his hands as if to ward off his concerns.  

“I finally got those two bakas over there to come to terms.  We will have to split up, though.  Sango, myself, Shippou, and Kirara will take the northern village, and you and Kagome-sama will take the south.  Is that satisfactory, my friend?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.  Inuyasha ignored the insinuation but did nod sharply, deciding for once not to complain about helping people.  Judging by her scent, Kagome was just as excited about the arrangements as he was.  

Shippou frowned but bit his tongue when it became clear Kagome wasn’t going to intercede on his behalf.  He too had sensed that she and Inuyasha wanted some alone time.  Some more ‘making love,’ perhaps?  He did recognize that whatever they wanted to do required privacy.  As long as Inuyasha made Kagome happy, he wouldn’t complain about being left behind every once in awhile.   

“Try not to take too long to get there, you two,” Miroku admonished playfully.  “There are people in need.”  

“Yeah, yeah, bouzu.  How do we get there?  And what the hell do we do if they take one look at us and start screaming?”  

“They said to just follow the main road in that direction,” the monk related, pointing southward.  “We’ll be on the same road going the other way.  It’s about a day and a half journey either way on foot.  And if you get trouble, just tell them Jirou sent you.  Or was it Nobu who lived in the south?  Um, just remember both names.”  

“Damn bouzu.  Can’t you get anything right?”  

“Hey, I think I did pretty well.  I got them falling-down drunk so we wouldn’t have to travel with them, without getting intoxicated myself.”  

“How did you manage that?” Sango interjected.  “I didn’t know you had so much stamina.”  Bad choice of words.  

“Care to find out exactly how much stamina I have, my dear Sango?” he leered, pulling her close with a hand around her waist.  The taijiya would have elbowed him, but it took all her self-restraint to keep from losing her lunch.  

“Ugh!  Sake breath!”  

Miroku sighed and released her, allowing her to stumble away.

“I only pretended to drink after the first bottle,” he whined.  

“I don’t care!  You still stink!”  

“Surely it’s not that ba—”

“Oh, yeah?  Kagome, why don’t you take a whiff?  Kagome?” she called after noticing that her friend was no longer in the area.  

“They left while you were arguing,” Shippou stated.  “They seemed to be in a big hurry for some reason.”  

“I-I’m sure they just really want to help those people,” Sango lied.  

Shippou scoffed inwardly.  “Yeah, that’s definitely it.”  

A white feather soared swiftly through the air, its sole occupant leaning forward as if to coax even more speed from it.  Her face was drawn tightly into a silent snarl, the expression of a woman who knows her end is near.  It was only a matter of time before her bastard of a master finished her off.  

Her greatest fear had come true; Naraku had finally decided that he no longer needed her.  Her final task had been manipulating those corpses to split the Inu-gang in two parts.  After she returned, he told her to prepare herself, then aimed a sluggish attack at her midsection.  She dodged easily and took flight, leaving his maniacal cackling in her wake.  She knew fleeing was futile; Naraku could kill her any time he wanted with a squeeze of his hand.  Still she ran, unwilling to so easily relinquish the life she had been born—congealed to.  The freedom she had desired so badly…now she would perish without ever having known its sweet embrace.  

Youkai or not, she was mortal.  And all mortals ran, she reflected.  Even if doing so just entertained her sick master for a little while longer.  She was certain he was enjoying every moment of this, the crippling uncertainty that nearly made her curl up into a ball and weep.  At any moment, the pain would come and the heart which had never really been hers would stop beating.  At any moment…

So why did she run?  What was the point?  Maybe she just wanted to avoid seeing him again.  Dying in his presence or being run through by a tentacle or spike would make her inevitable end that much less palatable.  But perhaps there was another reason, something…someone she wanted to see once more before passing into the afterlife.  Would she even have an afterlife?  Did she have a soul?  Was she even alive in the first place?  She had never mulled over these questions before, believing the whole topic of death far too morbid to consider.  Not that it would have made any difference.

Agony

Nothingness

Only, it wasn’t.  She rose from her disintegrating body, watching as the last of it blew away in the breeze.  The breeze…  I am the wind.  She floated, formless, simply doing nothing as the sun crested and began sinking toward the western horizon.  It was bliss.  Then she felt a pull, a persistent nudge that pushed her in a certain direction.  She went with the flow, moving with and in the air until she reached a grassy plain.  And when she saw who was on that plain, she rushed toward him of her own free will.  

Sesshoumaru stared regally ahead as the strange—yet familiar—wind whooshed around him.  This presence…so like Naraku and yet entirely different.  It prodded him, urged him in a certain direction.  Then, abruptly, it was gone as quickly as it had come.  The peaceful breeze once more fluttered his hair, carrying to his ears the sounds of his ward and vassal emerging from the forest at his back.  

“Jaken.”  

“Yes, my lord?”  

“Stay here with Rin.”  Then he too was gone, soaring high overhead in the direction the spirit had shown him.  Part of him hoped the specter would return, but he knew it never would.  It had gone to a better place.  

“Farewell, Wind Sorceress.”  

Actually, Sango’s covering fib was quite correct.  Inuyasha and Kagome darted down the path, the latter having decided that she would feel too guilty to enjoy their time alone until they rescued the village.  Every minute they delayed could mean someone’s life.  Inuyasha grudgingly accepted her decision, but he could admit to himself that he would have felt guilty as well.  They ran for an hour then stopped at a small stream to quench their thirsts.  Kagome hiked into the underbrush to get some privacy in order to relieve herself.  There were some things even couples didn’t need to do together.  She was just retucking her white kosode into her forest green hakama when she heard a small noise coming from deeper into the woods.  It repeated itself, and as she crept forward, curious, she received an inkling of what it was.  It sounded like someone crying.  Stealthily now she moved toward the sound until finally she peaked around a bush and saw a small form sobbing on a rock.  

It was a kitsune, about Shippou’s size, only this one almost assuredly a girl.  The tail was less bushy, more demure, and she had a bright pink ribbon in her hair in addition to lightly colored clothes.  Kagome’s heart went out to her; she hated to see children cry.  

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked quietly so as not to startle.  The little girl stared at her in alarm for a couple seconds then dashed off through the trees.  

“Wait!” Kagome called after her.  “I won’t hurt you!  Maybe I can help!”  But there was no answer, and she quickly lost all trace of the mysterious child.  She was just about to give up when she burst out of the forest and into a large valley.  She stopped dead in her tracks, the sight before her making her blood run cold.  Pink ribbon and fur morphed into dark hair, pale skin, and slate gray armor.  And when the imposter’s previously concealed scent hit her, she stumbled back a few steps in horror.  

“N-Naraku!”  

“Hello, Kagome,” the dark hanyou greeted her easily, as if they were old acquaintances.  “It’s nice to see you again.”  

Kagome closed her slack jaw and gritted her teeth.  Oh shit, this is really bad.  Naraku had obviously intended to lure her out here for some sinister purpose, and now here she was.  Alone.  Hakudoshi lounged lazily off to one side, but that didn’t help her any.  She was on her own, facing down the single greatest evil the world had ever seen.  

*Gulp*

She was too close; she didn’t dare show him her back to run, lest she find herself impaled on one of those nasty spikes.  Her bow and arrows were strung over her shoulder, but would Naraku even give her the chance to fire one?  With nothing to lose, she decided to find out.

The reaction was immediate and swift.  Too swift.  Tentacles came at her from all sides, forcing her to duck away before she could loose the arrow.  Again she aimed but the bow was smacked from her grasp by a blow that sent her careening along the ground to land in a heap.  She scrambled to her feet, barely avoiding the tentacles as they made a grab for her.  But there were far too many of them, and soon she felt one snake around her ankle in midair, yanking her downward and smashing her hard against the earth.  When her head stopped spinning, Naraku’s wickedly grinning visage was only inches from her own, his hot breath and the feeling of being wrapped in his slimy flesh making her nauseous.  

“Well, my little Kikyou lookalike, I’ve never seen you up this close before.  You’re very beautiful.”  

“You’re disgusting.”  

Naraku only chuckled darkly at her insult.  “Hakudoshi!  Go summon Inu—  Never mind; he’s already here.”

“KAGOME!!!”  
Converting /tmp/phpPEsRBU to /dev/stdout