InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Once Upon a Time ❯ Enemies and Allies ( Chapter 10 )

As sunset approached the travelers returned to their campsite to find Kouga presiding over a wild pig roasting on a spit over the fire. Ayamae rested easily against Kirara while Shippou, apparently ignored by the others, concentrated on checking the variety of small toys he used as weapons for any damage that could be repaired before they faced Naraku.

The wolf youkai looked up and caught sight of Inuyasha. “You’re not much of a host, puppy. Were you going to let Ayamae starve?”

The hanyou stepped forward. “Nobody starves in this pack, you scrawny wolf. Can you say the same?”

That struck a nerve. Since Kouga, two other youkai, and a handful of wolves were all that remained of his tribe after they had been attacked by Kagura in an ill-conceived plot to force Kouga and Inuyasha to destroy each other, the youkai had become extremely defensive about the change in his people’s fortunes. He bared his teeth in a snarl. “Back off, mutt!”

Two voices rang out at the same time. “Kouga!” “Inuyasha!”

Miroku and Sango looked from Ayamae to Kagome in surprise. In their experience Kagome at least seldom made any serious attempt to control the behavior of the hanyou. In this case, however, an immediate cessation of hostilities would be to the benefit of all concerned. As Kagome stepped forward to rest a hand on Inuyasha’s arm to dissuade him from drawing his sword Ayamae, finally able to stand without assistance, stepped up to similarly restrain Kouga with a hand on his shoulder.

Ayamae shook her head. “I’ve seen how much you two enjoy this kind of thing, but can we really afford the luxury of you two indulging yourselves like this?”

Kagome nodded in agreement. “With Naraku so close, I don’t think we need to be fighting with each other. I know that you two killing each other would make Naraku really happy, but where would that leave the rest of us?”

The combined accusations of self-indulgence and disregard for the welfare of their pack members had an immediate effect. The would-be combatants broke eye contact and relaxed to a more neutral posture, settling for an occasional glare across the campsite. The combined efforts of Ayamae and Kagome had achieved something that the travelers had never before managed: a truce--however uneasy--between the former leader of the brown tribe of the wolf youkai pack and the hanyou.

The most amazing thing of all, at least in Miroku’s eyes, was the fact that the tenuous accord had been reached without recourse to threats, tears, or violence of any kind. He caught himself wondering exactly what kind of sorcery the two had used to gain the others’ cooperation, then realized that it was nothing of the kind--at least in the sense of a special ability reserved for a select few. This particular kind of magic seemed to reside in the women of either race, whether youkai or human, and seemed to be beyond their conscious control. Regardless of how the power was wielded, the end result was the same: the male upon whom it was exercised voluntarily abandoned the pleasures of his life so far to become the willing partner that she had been needing.

It was, he decided, a little scary. He himself, of course, was entirely immune to the effect. He had, after all, been involving himself with women ever since he was old enough to know the difference and had not yet been affected. He could, therefore, afford to be just the slightest bit smug.

As the evening wore on, the whole group relaxed into a more friendly mood with the obvious exceptions of Inuyasha and Kouga. Still, the fact that Kouga was somewhat preoccupied with assisting Ayamae--who was still relatively weak--and was thus unable to proposition Kagome or otherwise irritate the hanyou certainly helped. So, for that matter, did the fact that Kagome stayed very close to Inuyasha to avoid provoking any further disagreement--and to stop it if it started.

It was well past dark when two male figures dressed much like Kouga stumbled into the firelight. Though they were not alone, the wolves with them remained in the shadows, their yellow eyes reflecting the flames. Taken completely by surprise by the apparently peaceful coexistence of all concerned, Ginta and Hakkaku simply stood there, staring around the campsite and trying to catch their breath. It was not their fault that they had arrived on the scene so much later than Kouga. They did not, after all, have their performance enhanced by Shikon fragments on their legs, as Kouga did.

After greeting their leader and Ayamae, the pair crossed the campsite to visit briefly with Kagome, whom they had come to think of as almost a sister. Not at all surprisingly, the hanyou was civil if not downright cordial. These two were, after all, Kouga’s subordinates and therefore posed no threat of any kind.

As Kagome lay in her sleeping bag that night she wondered exactly what the morning would bring. From the look of things, Ayamae would be well enough to travel--at least a little--although she would be no match for Kouga’s speed yet.

Shippou had, of course, informed her of the agreement between Ayamae and Kouga, and she was delighted. Even though the arrangement as she understood it was more along the line of a political alliance than anything more personal, she had no doubt that the personal union would soon follow as they would be spending so much time together managing the affairs of their joint tribe.

The last thing Kagome saw before dropping off to sleep was Inuyasha sitting by the fire in that semi-dozing state from which he could achieve instant alertness at the first hint of trouble. More than anything else, that sight made her feel safe enough to sleep without worry.

Kagome awoke to see that Kouga had left at daybreak, leaving the other three wolf youkai behind at the campsite. Since there seemed to be no real hurry to get packed up and going she helped herself to a cup of tea, sitting between Sango and Ayamae. “I can’t believe I slept so long,” she said. “Where’s Kouga?”

Ayamae smiled, glad that her freedom of movement was returning. “He’s gone to scout ahead a little.” Glancing up at the sun, she continued, “He should be back any time now.”

Kagome was happy that she and her youkai counterpart had finally reached an understanding. Their first meeting had not been pleasant, at least until Ayamae had come to see that Kagome neither wanted nor invited Kouga’s advances. At that point they had started to become friends based on the foolish behavior of the males in their lives.

The three women decided that since Ayamae’s wound was essentially healed they would all visit the hot spring that Kagome had discovered earlier. In a decision that disappointed the others more than any of them would have chosen to admit, they took Kirara along to act as a lookout. In her natural state the youkai was inconspicuous due to her small size. Any potentially dangerous intruder would disregard her as a threat until it was too late.

Sango was still somewhat in awe of the control the others had exercised in stopping the fight before it got started. “I’ve never seen anything like it--how did you two ever get them to stop acting like little kids and cooperate for a while?”

Kagome shook her head. “It has to be Ayamae. I’ve never been able to get them to cut it out. Maybe,” she said, “The agreement between Kouga and Ayamae has something to do with it.”

Sango’s eyes widened. “You mean Kouga remembered his promise?” She had felt rather sorry for the wolf youkai when she’d first met Ayamae--for even a young man to forget a promise to marry someone did not bode well for his future happiness.

Ayamae smiled. “He remembers, all right, but I’m not going to hold him to it. For now, we’re just going to combine our two tribes under joint leadership. I think he’ll probably come around in time: it’s really best if he thinks that it’s all his idea.”

Kagome nodded. “He’s already started. Kouga has been with us for a full day and hasn’t proposed even once.”

Sango could see how relieved Kagome was feeling. She herself had recently been asked to marry the young ruler of a small kingdom to the south. Though she suspected that the invitation had been born of an infatuation caused when she and the other youkai exterminators from her village had destroyed a bear youkai for the former king some years earlier, she had never seriously considered the proposal, and had spent days trying to decide how best to refuse without hurting the young man. “Of course, you never really considered his proposals.”

Kagome’s smile was shaky. “How could I? I don’t belong here--I’m from a completely different time. I couldn’t abandon my life there and never see my family again. He could never come back to my world. There was no future in it.”

Ayamae lowered her eyes. “That’s only part of the reason, though.”

Kagome didn’t really want to talk about it, but these two had become her closest female friends anywhere near her own age. She nodded slowly. “You’re right, of course. There is another reason why I couldn’t accept Kouga. I just don’t want to talk about it.”

Ayamae had recognized what Kagome had done by emptying the campsite so that she and Kouga could reach an understanding of sorts. “What can I do to help?”

Kagome smiled sadly. “Nothing. It’s a complicated matter--there’s a lot of old pain that needs to be resolved before anything can happen. The only thing that can help is time, and I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.”

There was absolutely no question in either of the others’ minds as to exactly who the “we” were. Unfortunately, neither Sango nor Ayamae could think of any way to help things along.

The conversation gradually turned to the subject of Naraku and the problems likely to arise in assuring his destruction. As Kagome understood the situation, the problem of Naraku had four main parts. Although he could be considered a hanyou, Naraku was not born of the union between a youkai and a human. Rather, Naraku came to exist when the evil in one human’s corrupt soul attracted a multitude of youkai. When these youkai consumed the horribly burned thief Onigumo, the twisted spirit that lusted after both the Shikon no Tama and the miko who tended him formed the core of the composite creature that would be known as Naraku. Like every hanyou, Naraku sometimes lost all of his youkai abilities due to the influence of his human part. However, because his youkai portion was so diverse, Naraku possessed the unique ability of being able to choose the time during which he became helpless, using these occasions to edit and recombine himself to become stronger each time.

In addition, Naraku possessed a great many Shikon fragments--very nearly the entire jewel. Although he retained most of them to strengthen himself and give himself additional abilities, he had been known to supply Shikon shards to others to increase their power and to bring them under his control. He had done so with Rouyakan, the gentle youkai guardian of the forest near Kaede’s village, turning the inoffensive creature into a violent monster bent on Inuyasha’s destruction. When Sango had been so badly wounded by her younger brother, Naraku had used a piece of the Shikon no Tama to allow her to continue to fight against the hanyou she believed to be responsible for the destruction of her home village. Kohaku himself, who had been killed in the fight at Naraku’s castle, had been reanimated by Naraku’s Shikon shard and forced to fight against his sister and her friends. Even the powerful Sesshoumaru had been manipulated into accepting a human arm equipped with a fragment of the Shikon no Tama to replace the left arm he’d lost in battle with his younger brother. Although the human arm had allowed him to use the Tetsusaiga, the Shikon shard within it had tried to engulf Sesshoumaru himself to bring him under Naraku’s control.

One of the reasons that Naraku was so hard to catch was that he seldom acted himself, preferring to use others to carry out his wishes. Even when he did choose to act himself, his ability to assume any form made him a formidable opponent. In his last battle with Miroku’s grandfather, he had taken the form of a beautiful woman in order to get close enough to attack successfully. Disguised as Kikyou, he had set in motion the chain of events that had led to Inuyasha being sealed for a half century. To make absolutely certain that the plan was successful, he had even taken Inuyasha’s form and attacked Kikyou, giving her the wound that would ultimately end her life.

Unfortunately, Naraku rarely took such direct action, preferring to set traps for his enemies. When he had caused Kagura to destroy most of Kouga’s tribe, it had been with the ultimate goal of forcing Kouga and Inuyasha to kill each other. Perhaps Naraku’s greatest strength lay in the fact that he seemed to have an intuitive understanding of what motivated his adversaries. He certainly seemed to know how to get people to charge recklessly ahead in their search for vengeance. But, Kagome wondered, did he actually realize that people could be motivated by emotions other than revenge?

By the time the three women arrived back at the campsite, Kouga had already returned. Though he had not actually located Naraku, he had seen what could only have been a swarm of Naraku’s venomous bees to the north of their location.

Clearly, they would not reach Naraku within the next day’s travel. After a brief discussion, the decision was made that the two groups would join forces to locate and destroy Naraku. Kouga and his two companions would go ahead to try to find where Naraku had gone into hiding. The others would follow, and they would attack together to ensure victory.

Despite Ayamae’s protests, all agreed that she would remain with Inuyasha’s group until she regained her full strength. Once the agreement was made, Kouga sped off to the north, followed at a more normal rate of speed by Ginta and Hakkaku. “Kouga!” “Wait, Kouga!”