InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Moon Behind Clouds ❯ Chapter 3

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 3



When they had stopped to rest the night before, it had seemed that they were very close to Yamamura, and would surely reach the village that next morning. But there is something deceptive about traveling near mountains. The morning wore away, noon came and went, then the afternoon passed as well, but still the path went on. And all the while, great dark clouds came up, and then it began to rain. It was not until well into that evening that they arrived at the little town, beneath a steady drizzle. Sesshomaru ignored the rain, as if little things like the weather were beneath his consideration. Kikyo paid it only slightly more attention.

“It’s a good thing the witch fired me long enough in her oven”, was all she said, “otherwise, all my dirt would wash away.”

She was talking about Urasue, the evil sorceress who had desecrated her grave. She had taken Kikyo’s ashes, and mixing them together in a hideous recipe that included bits of bone and graveyard soil -- along with who knows what else -- she made a new body to look just like Kikyo’s old one. This she fired in a magic oven, until the vessel that came out looked just like the Lady Kikyo in every regard: the way she looked, the sound of her voice, everything was exactly the same as before. The only difference was that her new body had no warmth.

Urasue had hoped to use her new creation as a puppet that would do her bidding. In life, Kikyo had been renowned for her powers as a priestess. The witch rightly guessed that such great power would not simply disappear -- even in the grave. But there were other things that got mixed in with the soil and bones. Memories lingered among the ashes. And an iron will.

There wasn’t much to the town, just a collection of small houses, a few shops, and one inn at the center. As if the rain weren’t enough, to complete the dreary atmosphere, there was a funeral going on, in what had once been a little cemetery on the edge of town. Tragically, in the last few weeks and days, it had suddenly got much larger. Kikyo and Sesshomaru met the procession on the road. As it was passing, amid the sounds of wailing and crying, a gust of wind came up, and tore off part of the white shroud that covered the body, so that they could see that it had belonged to a young woman. She could not have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old. Her skin was ghastly white, but her hair was long and dark, and still quite beautiful. Kikyo nodded to herself. Sesshomaru seemed unmoved.

As they walked down the street, the only one in the town, people stood in the doorways of their houses looking at them in spite of the rain. It was not every day that one could see a youkai and a priestess walking down the road together. It was to the inn they went, and Sesshomaru would have gone in immediately, had Kikyo not stopped him.

“Better to let me talk to them”, she said. “They will be less afraid of me, and we will get better information.”

“Then you go in first”, he said, and held the reed curtain across the door open for her.

“It is the priestess!”, more or less everyone in the room said when Kikyo walked in, after which the conversations went off in several different directions, the most prominent ones being some variation of, “Surely she well help us!”, or “What took her so long?”, or else, “I thought all priestesses were old women. I didn’t know she’d be so --oof!”, “Be quiet!” The conversations stopped altogether when Sesshomaru walked in, and this time, when they started up, they were on the order of, “Who is THAT?” “Why would a priestess be traveling with a demon?” “He can’t be evil; he’s traveling with a priestess”, and “Of course he’s not! No one could be all bad and still be so GOOD looking!” Then Sesshomaru cast his icy stare around the room, into every nook and corner, and the conversations died again, only this time, they did not restart.

“My lady”, a kindly looking old man with white hair said, breaking the awkward silence, “You have traveled a long way to see us. I am afraid we have little to offer you, but we have rice, and perhaps some hot sake would help allay the cold.”

“I don’t require your food”, Sesshomaru said before Kikyo could say anything.

Kikyo clasped her hands, and bowed very low.

“What my companion means”, she said, in very conciliatory tones, “Is that we did not come here to take advantage of your hospitality. And we have no money with which to pay you, so we will refrain from eating your food, or drinking your sake. We came here only to help.” And she bowed again, much to the elder’s protests.

“My lady, it is we who should pay you. You have come all this way. Please, at least let us offer you a warm meal. Let us pay you as best we can for your trouble.”

“Thank you, but it is better if I abstain. I wish to purify myself, to keep my powers at their strongest.”

The old man bowed.

“As you wish. If your friend would like anything, he need only ask. Or he may help himself, as he likes.”

Sesshomaru stayed where he was, holding his head aloof. If Jaken were there, he most likely would have said, “The great lord Sesshomaru has no need to ask anyone for ANYTHING!” But Jaken was not there. However, several girls from the village were, and one of them could be heard whispering to her friends, “Look, she can‘t eat anything because she has to fast to maintain her power, so he won’t eat, either. How sweet! He’s not only handsome, he’s a gentleman too!” If Sesshomaru heard them, he did not pay them any attention.

Kikyo looked around the inn for a few minutes, then placed her bow and quiver in an out of the way corner where she could keep an eye on them easily. She was about to turn around when she heard a very unfriendly voice say,

“I don’t suppose your kind requires human food.”

The voice belonged to a monk. She could tell by the dark robes that marked his order. One would have thought that he would be addressing such a remark to Sesshomaru, but he was looking right at Kikyo. His words were meant for her.

“How strange”, Kikyo said. “I had heard that all the holy men of this village had perished fighting the demon. How is it that you are not with them?”

The monk scowled.

“I’m not from this village.”

Kikyo narrowed her eyes.

“I came from the next valley over. I’m here to destroy the demon.”

“Then it would appear we are on the same side.”

“Not likely. I’ve never heard of a priestess traveling with a demon before. I cannot imagine what unlikely circumstances would bring the two together. But TWO demons, traveling together, now that I can imagine . . .”

“You imagine much,” Kikyo said good naturedly, and turned away from him to go and sit beside the hearth. She chose a spot next to the town elder, and pretended to be warming herself by the fire. “Father, tell me, how are you coping with the recent attack?”

“It has been very hard for us. Many have perished already. Just this afternoon we buried a young girl, naught but seventeen years old. It is hard enough to lose the old, but for the young to die -- she was so beautiful, and very kind and industrious, too. An unusual combination in these times. She’d have made a good wife to someone one day. It is too terrible.”

“My heart . . .goes out to her . . .”

Just then, someone came and put a rack of meat over the fire. When it sizzled, Kikyo gasped, and recoiled in horror.

“My lady!”

“The smell . . .”, was all Kikyo could say, and she put her hand to her chest and gagged.

“You fool! Get that out of here! I’m sorry my lady -- what were you thinking, roasting that filth in front of her!”

“No, no”, she said between coughs, “Don’t punish him. I take no offense at what anyone else eats. It’s just, I cannot abide the smell of burning flesh . . .”

“I am terribly sorry, my lady. Are you all right?”

“I’ll be fine.”

The elder put his hand out to steady her.

“Why you’re freezing cold! And your kimono is soaked through. You will be ill! Let us get you a room, and some dry things.”

“Thank you.”

While the elder took Kikyo to find a room, Sesshomaru remained in the main hall. The inn was a small building, but well constructed, with wooden floors in the common room and the two hallways that led to the rooms for the guests. Though humble, everything was kept very clean, and in perfect order. Finding nothing of interest, Sesshomaru stepped out onto the porch, where the rain was no longer even a drizzle, but had ceased altogether. He sniffed the air, but could smell nothing in it but the now far away storm. There were no signs of any kind of trouble, at least, not in this world, so he drew the Tenseiga, to see what he could see in the next, but there was nothing stirring there, either, so he returned it to its sheath, and turned and went in.

He had just let the door flap down behind him when he caught sight of a monk, the same one who had accosted Kikyo, glaring at him. Sesshomaru glared back. The monk did not waver. So he laid his hand on the Tokijin. At that, the monk looked away.

“Hmpfh!”, Sesshomaru said to himself. “A coward.” It occurred to him that a real monk would have more of a spiritual presence, and he wondered if the Tenseiga would have any effect on such a person.

“Pay no attention to him”, the elder said, coming back down the hall. “He came here several days ago, saying he was going to rid us of the demon, but he hasn’t done anything yet but eat our food and drink our wine. I’ve seen good men do wicked things, and wicked men do good things. I’ve seen so many winters that my hair has turned white -- what is it to me if your hair is white also?”

“Where is the Lady Kikyo?”

“She’s in a room near the end of the hall. Your room is beside hers -- it’s the last door on the left. Here, I will show you.”

“You need not bother. I will find it myself.”

“As you wish, then. I am old, and it is late, so I will take my leave.”

Sesshomaru nodded, and watched him go. Then he made his way down the hall. He had just drawn even with the second to last door on the left, when it opened.

“Lord Sesshomaru.“

The two panels slid to either side. Between them stood the Lady Kikyo. She was wearing a quilted gray sleeping kimono. Her wet clothes were hanging on a rack in the room behind her. A beautiful red kimono decorated with flowers and leaves was spread out on the wall.

“I should want to pursue Yamahiko in the morning, as early as possible”, he said. Kikyo nodded in agreement.

“We shall go before dawn.”

“Then good evening, Lady Kikyo.”

Kikyo slid the panels shut. Sesshomaru went to his own room. But he did not sleep. There was something in the way Kikyo had greeted him. Something too deliberate.

“She wanted me to see her”, he thought to himself. “But what was her purpose?” Sesshomaru was quite familiar with the advances of human women, even if he did reject them. He had no time for such things. But that was not Kikyo’s purpose. “If she had wanted to seduce me, she’d have worn the red kimono that hung on the wall behind her.” But instead she had worn a gray sleeping kimono, which was very old, and worn, to the point of being a bit lumpy looking. And she’d had it drawn up very close around her neck, in complete modesty.

“Never the less“, he thought, “She wanted me to see her that way, dressed for bed. She wanted me to think she was going to sleep. Which means she isn’t going to sleep. She’s going out after the demon herself . . .”