InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ New Moon Fever ❯ The Attacked Village ( Chapter 4 )

DISCLAIMER- once again, and like always, I am NOT the proud owner of an Inuyasha. But whoever does own one- if yours has funny ears and a stubborn expression- please MOVE HIM! He's blocking the way. :p

Again- thank you much for the reviews! I love `em. I tried to update this thing earlier, but mm.org was down for awhile, so I couldn't

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Last time….

Miroku, Sango, Kirara, Kagome and Shippo head off in the direction of the shard, leaving Inuyasha smashed in the dirt, via a subduing word! But, as the spell wears off, he catches a whiff of their scent. The irrepressible hanyou goes after them, obviously not getting it through his thick skull that they left him there to keep him safe.

Now…..

"Could he be following us houshi-sama?" Sango broke the natural silence with a worried inflection in her voice.

Miroku raised his brow for a second, glancing back over his shoulder. "I can't tell, but it's very likely that Inuyasha didn't listen, and is behind us now."

Kagome sighed to herself, imagining Inuyasha spitting out flaming insults to his disappeared friends, and vowing revenge. (She wasn't far from the truth, either). Although the hanyou was a skilled a smart fighter, he never yet trusted his friends to make the right decisions, and certainly would rarely accept their help.

"We could try to trick him out a little by moving in different directions, Sango. Shippo- do you think that would work?"

Shippo clung to the violet wrap of the monk's robes, and looked sincerely into his face. "We could try it! Inuyasha has a strong nose, but, if he's angry he may be fooled easily."

Kagome tensed up when she thought of how utterly beyond pissed he would be when this was all over. He hated being held back by anybody, no matter what their intention. But, their plan had already been carried out, and there was no way they could back out now. Kirara began dutifully swerving left and right, circling a bit in different directions, and, ultimately tracing a path that was in the opposite direction of their goal. When the exterminator and the monk had assessed that they had accomplished enough, Kirara pushed on to the rock cliff, which was quickly coming into focus.

"Stupid..fucking….bouzu….sonofa…….… ;.shit….ahhhhhh!" Kagome's prediction on Inuyasha's current activities was entirely correct. Inuyasha stood alone in a sea of trees, clustered together in a dark blanket. The scents of his friends seemed to be everywhere above him, and there was no general direction in which the cat had flown. At one point, the cat demon's scent seemed to have grazed the tops of the trees.

"I….can't sense them anymore!" He mentally cursed his human heritage, spinning around and hoping to catch a final bit of a clue before his abilities completely vanished for the night. After a few minutes of deliberation, swear words, and animalistic growls, Inuyasha settled on heading the direction he had started out with, to the direct west.

Hoping silently that he was going the correct way, he pushed his feet to fly again across the thicket of the forest floor. He would defeat this demon before nightfall.

They were coming upon the shard rapidly. Kagome could feel it pulsing in her body. She leaned forward so that Miroku could understand her above the whistling wind. "It…hasn't moved. It's practically stayed in the same place for almost half an hour! What…does that mean?"

Sango glanced back, having caught snippets of what Kagome had said. "It may be attacking!" She shouted so the two could hear her.

"I can't feel a heavy jyaki, but we still don't know what kind of youkai it is. We should take some precaution and move in from the other side of the mountain."

The two girls nodded. Sango signaled to Kirara to begin her downward descent. "It's a smart idea, houshi-sama." The unspoken reply hung in everyone's mind that this was precisely the opposite of what Inuyasha would have done. Kagome felt a wry grin spread over her features, as she remembered how Inuyasha loved to make grand entrances in a fight, and was never much one for tricks or surprises against his opponent.

As the cat demon flew nearer to the ground, the wind lessened, and the three could converse easier in the calmer atmosphere.

"Look! There's an outcropping of houses in that direction! I'm sure the villagers have some information about the youkai. They could tell us something that will help us fight it!" Miroku nudged Sango as they landed softly.

Shippo took his place on Kagome's shoulder, and Kirara shrunk to her kitten-sized form in a blast of flame, settling herself atop Sango. The rings on his staff jingling, Miroku quickly strode towards the dusty huts that stood beside the crags of the mountain. The two women followed, Sango lugging her Hiraikotsu, Kagome swinging her bow and quiver over her shoulder.

As they neared the edge of the houses, they spied two ladies washing clothing upon the bank of a trickling stream, apparently deep in troubled conversation. The charming monk stepped up behind them, and greeted the two village women with a polite bow. "Onegai, we would be grateful for your assistance, dear ladies. A youkai is stationed at the other side of the mountain, and we need all information possible to exterminate it."

The two middle-aged women looked frightened and saddened at Miroku's words. The one with a stocky build and a thick, drooping face pointed shakily to the side of the mountain. "It came last night…." Her voice was thick with fear, as if the memories were replaying in her head. "It…"

Her companion, who had a slighter waist and thick, dark and shining hair, finished her words for her. "The youkai attacked our homes, and a few men were killed. Her husband….We weren't prepared…."

At that moment, Sango and Kagome noticed that the kimono in the woman's hand was soaked by crimson blood, the entire front of it practically dyed a new color. Kagome trembled, her mind conjuring up what type of monster could have caused that damage. Something with sharp claws or teeth. Something large.

Miroku shut his eyes, silently making a motion of prayer in a Buddhist ritual. "Gomenesai, My Lady. This is a terrible loss. I will be honored to lay your dead to rest. These are indeed dangerous times."

Their eyes glittered with shuttered emotion, and they bowed their heads in solemn thanks. Sango was loathe to bring up the demon again, but it was necessary for her to hear the details. She stepped beside the quiet monk, and studied their faces with sorrowful empathy. "Could you…..tell us what kind of demon it was…? I know it must be painful for you to think of it…but….." She left the end of her query trailing, hoping that the two would comply.

The woman nodded quickly. "Of course we'll tell you everything we can, taijya-sama, houshi-sama, miko-sama." Kagome blushed deep red.

The lady with the round, sad face spoke up again, her skin drawn tight with sadness. "It was a large as two huts- thick, slimy skin, and with terrible eyes. It was like a dragon, yet it did not have wings or breath of fire. But it's arms…..It had gigantic claws that were as long as a man's body. None of our men could battle against it."

Sango pushed a bit further before the women broke down into sobs. "Was its skin tough or scaly?"

She sniffled, rubbing her eyes with the sleeve of her blue kimono. Her voice began to shake with tears. "I don't know. No one even got close enough to stab it."

Sango smiled grimly at the woman, and squeezed her shoulder slightly. "Arigatou….I know it is hard to speak of this. You have given us a lot of help."

Miroku bowed once again to the women, and the four moved quietly into the space between the houses. At once, they could see the damage from the attack. Many of the walls and roofs had been torn up or smashed inward. Food and supplies littered the porches and the street. Besides an undamaged building, they saw a line of six bodies, laid on the ground and covered in cloth.

When they approached the group of bodies, a shaky man appeared in the doorway of the building, his face paled and somber.

Miroku greeted the man in the same way he had the women, though more reserved this time. "Would you like us to lay them to rest for you, sir?" He nodded, silently, a grateful expression fleeting across his face. "Do you mind if we take a look at their wounds before we do so?" He shook his head, his lips curling painfully. Leaving them to view the bodies, he retreated back into the house.

Sango immediately knelt down next to one of the bodies. Pulling back the cloth, they were met with a gruesome sight. She fought back a short wave of nausea, remembering the slaughter that had been brought down upon her own village.

The man's face was barely recognizable as a human's anymore, ripped and slashed to pieces. Along his side, blood caked his entire shirt, and had dried into a deathly black. Kagome was forced to look away at the vision of his torn limbs and visible bones. Shippo looked on with an expression of shock and dismay.

Sango's hands hovered over the spots of injury, and she turned back to the monk. "It seems as if the claws pierced straight through his head. It's as if he was picked up with one set of claws," she noted the gauges in his limbs, "and was stabbed through with the other. This could be a very dangerous fight." Miroku nodded. Looking at the other corpses, almost the same kinds of injuries were present on all the bodies.

"Well, let us bury them first, and then we can build up a plan. Putting the dead to rest is our first task. It seems as if this demon chooses to attack solely at night. We may be able to wait a while." The others nodded, and, one by one, they carried them to the outskirts, and set burials for each dead villager. Miroku recited prayers for each grave and the women settled meager bouquets of flowers on each mound.

Inuyasha could see no end in sight to the forest. It seemed to expand on and on, immeasurably. Finally, with a growl of frustration, he climbed swiftly to the top branch of a tall tree. Up ahead, he saw a tall cliff. Maybe that was the direction in which the group had headed. It was worth a try. Leaping down, the flash of steely white and flowing red disappeared from the clearing.

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A/N- Wow….this WAS going to be a one-shot….hehe….I guess it's going to be a bit longer than planned. Hope you liked this chapter. It was enjoyable to write. I would actually write more, but I'm exhausted, and must get up early. The new moon will rise in time, and the carrier of the shard will be revealed. Sleep tight. R&R

~Sadia~