InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ New Journey ❯ 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The next morning, the group headed out again. They still had one
talisman left to find in this domain. They had been walking
for about an hour when Kagome said that they should try to learn how to
control their talismens, practice using them and so
forth.
"It won't work." Nari said.
"Why not?"Kagome asked. "Do we have to collect a certain number of them
before they work?"
"Yes. You must collect them all. And, in some cases, make them trust
you."
"Trust us? Will some of our talismens be.........human?"
"No, no! Animals. Some might trust you on the spot, but they might be
difficult." Nari explained.
"Oh."
They walked in silence for a while. No one really had anything to say.
After almost another hour, Inuyasha and Koga sniffed
the air, as if faintlu smelling something.
"What is it?" Kagome asked.
"A youkai. It's attackeing a village." Koga said, almost indifferently.
"Dumb wolf, it's a group! "Inuyasha snorted. "We might as well take
care of it. Let's go. Youkai, everyone. Kagura, carry
Nari." Kagura nodded, enlarging the feather that she flew on and
helping Nari up while everyone else morphed into their
youkai form, except for Koga and Shippo, who always traveled as youkai.
They raced to the village, the quicker ones arriving
a few minutes before the slow ones. When the were all there, Inuyasha
told them their attack plan. The village wasn't in
dire need of help just yet, so they could afford to be careful about
this. They'd need a careful plan to bring this youkai
down. It was enormous. It could have sat down on the village and
covered half of it. It seemed to be made out of rocks, and
it's strength was very evident. It had crushed the few stone bulidings
that were probably the pride of this town with one
blow.
"Shippo, distraction. Everyone else, normal positions. let's take it
down." They all scattered, Shippo starting his
"attack" right away. The youkai just looked annoyed, but it had stopped
crushing buildings. the other launched a
simotanious attack, Sango with her posin spikes- an attack learned
recently- Kohaku with the sickles, Kagome, Inuyasha, and
Koga with their bare hands, and Kagura with her Wind Blades. Miroku, of
course, was keeping it off balance with his void.
The monster roared in pain, and managed to draw some of Sango's blood
when she was a bit distracted. A split second later,
Kagome raked at it's eyes with her claws. It cried out, stumbling back,
and ran into Kohaku. It cut itself badly on his
chain-sickle hands, and dropped. Inuyasha transformed into his hanyou
self so he could use the Scar of the Wind against it,
cutting the demon into little pieces so that Miroku wouldn't have to
try to suck the entire thing up at once. The villagers
had watched, shocked, from the start of this battle. The group ran away
from the village, just out of sight, then
detransformed.
"That was..hard." Shippo said, out of breath. "And...... what're we
gonna do now? The
village people saw us, so I don't think they're gonna want us back."
"They only saw our demon forms, they might not recognize us!" Kagome
said, plastering a
smile on her face. "It'll be okay Shippo!"
"That's true Lady Kagome." Miroku said, leaning against a large
boulder. "They probably
won't recognize us. Why don't we go back there?" he suggested. Everyone
nodded,
transforming into humans as they did so. It would be about an hours
walk in this form,
but that was better then being killed by the villagers for showing up
as youkai. After a
few minutes of walking, Kagura asked what the next clue was. Kagome
looked at the little
scroll she had, and began reading:
Not soil, much harder,
I am a pain to dig out of farmers fields,
What am I?
That had them quiet for the rest of the trip. Everyone was thinking
about what the riddle
could mean. Roots were a pain, but they weren't much harder then dirt.
their thoughts
carried them all the way to the village, where they weren't recognized,
for the most part.
A monk recognized them, but he kept silent. He was interested in them,
because he had seen
them as demons earlier, and now they were human. What kind of creatures
were thay? They
stayed at the town's inn for the night.
The next morning, the group was about to leave when the monk came up to
them and asked if
they would share a meal with him. Inuyasha didn't want to, saying that
they had important
business to attend to, but Miroku, recognizing the gold robes of a
senoir monk, accepted
for all of them, and begged that the monk please excuse his friends
rudeness. The monk
simply dismissed the need to forgive Inuyasha with a wave of his hand
and a smile. They
then followed the monk to his temple. Once inside, the monk asked them
to show their true
forms. Everyone looked a bit taken aback, and Kagome asked him what he
meant by that,
trying to play dumb. the monk just smiled and assured them that they
wouldn't be harmed
at his temple.
"Alright." Miroku said, transforming into his demon form. The others
were even more
shocked at this. Miroku was always the level-headed one, so they
figured that, if Miroku
trusted him, the monk must be okay. The all transformed, one after the
other. The monk
merely watched. When they were done, he still looked like he was just a
casual observer, like this happend every day, but his eyes gave it
away. He was very excited.
"This is.......interesting. I have a few questions though." he said in
a calm voice. "Please, sit down and join me for a drink." they gathered
around a small table, and were just about to drink some tea, when a
villager came in, Apparently, one of their farmers was having trouble
moving a boulder from his fields. He said it very fast, and his
explaination went something like this:
"Farmer Iaopskkag is having trouble removing a boulder from his house
could you please come and help us lift it out- Ah! Youkai!" the villager
screamed, finally noticing the group of youkai that were sitting calmly
around the small table, sipping their cooling tea. "Th-There are
youkai..... in a monk's house! Excorsise them, quickly, please! " the
villager said, obviously terrified.
"Calm yourself. These youkai will not harm you." the monk said quietly.
"Do not be so scared. Look. " The monk reached out and picked up
Shippo. "Does this look like I'm being hurt? I am merely picking up a small
youkai, and it is not attempting to gouge out my syes and eat them for
breakfast. I am in closer contact with a demon then anyone has been
without being hurt." Shippo wrinkled his nose in disgust at the mention of
the monk's eyeballs.
"Why would I want to eat your eyes? The Ramen Kagome makes is much
better!" The monk laughed.
"I am sure it is." The monk gently put Shippo back on the floor. then,
turning to the villager, he added "Take me to the Iaopskkag farm." The
villager nodded, then asked if the youkai were to come. The monk
replied to the affirmitive. The group got up, reday to trnsform into their
human form, when the monk stopped them.
"Stay in those forms. The villagers need to learn to live alongside
youkai. This may help." They, needless to say, stayed youkai and followed
to monk. They heard gasps from the gathered villagers when they came
out of the small hut. They ignored them and kept moving. They finally
arrived at the farm, which was on the other side of the village. when they
got, there, they observed no less then three village men trying to pry
the rock free.
"Villagers! I have brought help. My friends here will help pry out the
rock!" The monk announced. The villagers sighed in relief, then noticed
who that monk had brought. "Yo- youkai!" they stammered.
"Don'y worry, they're well behaved." the monk said, a hint of amusement
in his voice. "Let them try, one at a time." The villagers nodded, then
ran from the rock as if it might bite them. Then, one by one, the group
slow;y approached the rock, trying to lift it. They all complained that
it was too hot, or cold, or slimy. The monk quietly commented that it
was always a pain to drag out of fields, quietly so that no one heard
him but Inuyasha, who suddenly realized what the riddle must of meant.
"Only the people without talismens try it!" he ordered. "Original
form!" they obeyed, and everyone who was without a talisman, back in normal
form, tried once more. Inuyasha, who was the third to try, managed to
pick it up, effortlessly. the rock was pretty small, about the size of a
mans head, only flatter.
"I have your rock." Inuyasha smirked with triumph, then turned to
Kagome "What does a rock represent?"
"The Earth." Kagome answered without hesitation. "Rocks, soil, plants,
trees, things like that."
"Alright!" Inuyasha smiled, apparently pleased with his talisman. It
was late afternoon by this time. Inuyasha glanced at the sun, low in the
sky, and requested rooms for another night. The monk insisted that they
stay with him. He had plenty of open rooms, and he'd like to continue
their earlier conversation, which had been cut off rudely by the
villagers arrival, if you didn't remember!
They headed back to the monk's hut. On the way there, the villagers
skirted around them, not wanting to be harmed if they suddenly attacked.