InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Peace Treaty ❯ Attacked ( Chapter 49 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: piratequeen0405 
Contains violence.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.01.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.1K | Visits: 826 | Status: Work In Progress
Contains violence.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.01.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.1K | Visits: 826 | Status: Work In Progress
Lord Okuri frowned as he shrunk into the shadows outside the Advisors Hall. Though never a stranger to employing subterfuge as a method of gaining knowledge, he felt he had fallen to a low point with sneaking about like a common thief. It was necessary however. Any word from Kagome that reached Sesshoumaru would put him in danger, and discerning his level of safety and need for a quick escape was paramount. Not privy to the innermost working of the advisors, he depended on overhearing and loyal servants for his diet of information, which was unfortunately beginning to show signs of unreliability. The day before, a message had come bearing the seal of the Council of Great Families. The Youkai he had stationed in the aviary was not able to intercept the important communication, and he had spent a sleepless night fretting over what it said. Two hours ago, another message came and an emergency meeting was called, leaving him to wait, lurking like an animal in the dark, his patience and nerve truly tested.
The door slid open abruptly, and Sesshoumaru exited, grim-faced and his unmasked Youki pulsing with anger.
“My father must be protected at all costs,” he said to Kouga. “Increase patrols around the stronghold. If she is coming here, I want to find her first.”
After a moment, the other inhabitants of the room began to spill out.
“At least we have reassurance that the Council wants to keep the peace,” Lady Higa said.
“That means little if kayaku is still a threat,” Commander Endo replied. “And it seems quite convenient that Ningen decided to tell us now, when she is already well on her way.”
Okuri listened for his name and mention of a conspiracy on the lips of the advisors, but there was nothing incriminating, nothing to indicate they knew of his deception. Deeming himself safe for the moment and wanting to hear more, he stepped out into the corridor and saw Lord Sato walking in his direction. “Has something happened?” he asked, expertly feigning innocent curiosity.
“Yesterday morning we received a letter from Lord Okashita of the Ningen Council,” Sato said. “Lady Inoue immediately sent word to the House of the East, whose spies have most closely been keeping an eye on certain members of the Council. She received a reply earlier today confirming the authenticity of the claims in Okashita’s letter.”
“Which are?”
“They now acknowledge that they were mistaken. Kagome Higurashi is alive.”
“We already knew that.”
“Yes, but there’s more. They have learned she is making her way back to the West.”
Okuri blanched. Keeping a letter out of Sesshoumaru’s hands was difficult enough. There was no way he could keep Kagome away from him if she showed up at the gates. “Surely…she’s not. That’s suicidal.”
“The message said she is coming to kill General Inutaisho.” Sato shook his head; the developing situation had him more tired and on edge than he had been since his son lay dying. “Lady Kaede, the Head Priestess at the Shrine of the Miko Sisterhood, gave Kagome shelter after she fled from here. Over week ago, Kagome learned that the General is still alive. She spoke about completing her job, and Kaede tried to hold her there, but Kagome left in the dark of night. Kaede searched for her and reported to the Shrine’s feudal lord, General Miyamoto. He then went immediately to other members of the Council. Lady Inoue’s own spy corroborates that General Miyamoto was seen coming and going from the Miko Sisterhood. It seems Kagome Higurashi has not abandoned her plan of assassination. We have yet to figure out how this impacts the decision to return to War; General Inutaisho’s well-being is our first concern at the moment.”
“Dreadful news,” Okuri said, smiling secretly. It appeared his former Ningen allies had another move left in the game they played. Now he knew she was headed toward the West and could plan accordingly.
XXXXX
The signpost that marked the end of the neutral land between Youkai and Ningen territories was only noteworthy in that it was unremarkable—a small wooden post carved with the words end marchland.
“Funny,” Taka said, “we are now officially walking into danger, but I don’t feel any different. Youkai territory looks just like Ningen lands.” The hills, dotted with rhododendron thickets and crossed by spring-fed steams, they traversed an hour ago when they were in Ningen territory extended the length of the borderlands and did not change upon reaching the other side. “Even that sign is unimpressed.”
“Well, as I’ve been hoping was my point, our similarities are stronger than our differences,” Kagome said. “I like to imagine someday there will be not only peace, but a future where Youkai and Ningen live together in a land without hard borders.” She rubbed her still-flat belly thoughtfully. The fatigue she had been experiencing was explained by the harsh conditions to which she had been subjected over the past weeks, but her monthly blood had not yet begun, leading her to a cautious acceptance that she may indeed be pregnant. It was a realization that under other circumstances would have given her a circumspect pleasure; now, traveling on foot during a harsh winter and wanted dead or alive, she only felt worry. “I wish I was more confident, Taka. The closer we get, the more apprehensive I feel. Especially since I’m drawing you into it.”
“You know as well as I that I insisted on coming with you,” Taka said. She gestured across the meadow to a slow-moving stream up ahead. “We have been walking without break since this mid-day. Let’s sit for a while and have a bite to eat.”
Kagome grinned with gratitude at her friend. They had been walking for five primarily uneventful days, which passed by quickly, despite Kagome’s increasing tiredness. It took them little time to find a suitable spot to sit and rest.
“How many days until we reach the Western lands, assuming, of course, and I know I risk quite a bit by saying this at all, we have the luck and favorable conditions we’ve been blessed with so far?” Taka cut a chunk off an apple and handed it to Kagome.
“No more than two, I think. Thanks.” Kagome stifled a yawn and bit into the tart fruit, pleased it didn’t turn her stomach the way the dried fish they had consumed the evening before had. “The maps I looked at seemed to show the travel would be fairly easy. No wide rivers to ford, no steep terrain.”
“Good news,” Taka said. “Now why don’t you tell me what is on your mind.”
Kagome sighed, divided between her need to talk and fear of giving voice to her doubts. “I was so sure I could march through the gates of the stronghold and declare my innocence, but now…I don’t know. I’ve been gone from the Youkai for so long. I’ve been gone almost five weeks…Taka, that’s more than half the total time I lived with them. Why did I think they will believe me so readily? I am a stranger to them.”
“You don’t know that, Kagome.” Taka took Kagome’s hand and held it. She wanted nothing more than to slow time and let her friend catch up on needed sleep. In her experience, Kagome was most vulnerable to irrational self-doubt when tired, though she allowed that there was a frightening possibility that those doubts were well founded.
“No, I don’t,” she conceded, “but I don’t know anything. What if the General believes I tried to kill him? What could I possibly say to defend myself? I don’t know the evidence against me. Okuri had help. Whoever he was, he must have played his part convincingly for Sesshoumaru to believe him. I so badly want to continue the peace treaty. What if I’m completely wrong and this is a fool’s errand?”
“Don’t lose faith. There is no point in dwelling—” She stopped short and tightened her grip around her knife. A glance at Kagome told her she felt it too. Youkai. And they were coming quickly.
They stood and took note of their surroundings. There was a forest of bamboo a short distance to their left that could provide cover if they were able reach it, but before they could act, a group of a dozen fully armed boar Youkai appeared over the hill on the other side of the stream and rapidly closed in on them. They would never make the run to shelter.
“The boar Youkai are spending the winter near here,” Kagome said. “Let’s wait to see what they want.” She remembered the trouble she had caused with them the first time she had come this way.
As they approached, Kagome and Taka heard their heavy grunts and curses about Ningen and miko. “Gods be damned. He didn’t say there would be more than one,” one of them said.
“When has he ever told us the whole story? He’s as bad as the rest of the Taiyoukai.”
“They are probably here to bring me to Sesshoumaru,” Kagome said in a low voice. She took a step forward and put out her hands. “We mean no harm. If you—” She was interrupted by two spears sailing their way. They dodged the weapons, then leaped behind the rock they had been sitting on.
“Kagome…they don’t seem interested in our peaceful surrender.”
Kagome nodded. She did not know on whose orders the Youkai were attacking—she had assumed the Taiyoukai would at least want to interrogate her before execution—but at that moment it hardly mattered. “I guess we fight then.” Kagome unsheathed General Inutaisho’s sword, and Taka fit an arrow to her bowstring.
XXXXX
“Whoa, stop.” Manzo Ota, General Akagawa’s second-in-command, grabbed the arm of the soldier in charge of kayaku. “The weapon is to be used as a last resort.” He was disturbed by the zeal with which a few of the men had talked about using kayaku on Kagome Higurashi. Akagawa made it clear that though they were under orders to kill her, they were to leave no evidence of Ningen involvement, no way to tie the generals to her. Kayaku was only to be employed if there was no other choice. “We may not even need it,” Manzo said, indicating the scene that was beginning to play out before them.
“I know,” the soldier said, brushing him aside. He uncovered a large metal-covered tube and sack of black powder, then nodded to the man next to him to kindle a fire. “Just getting it ready. In case.”
“Go over there and wait,” Manzo said, gesturing toward the bamboo forest. “Give us cover. Target the one with the bow. Get Higurashi only if we can’t. Don’t use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”
The group of Ningen soldiers had been tracking the two women for several days, hoping to catch them before they got too deep into Youkai territory. The size of their force was smaller than Manzo had wanted—he was concerned that eight men would not be sufficient to take on two highly skilled miko in battle—but their greatest need was to travel quickly to catch up with them. The likelihood of victory of an entire squad was more than offset by the fact that a large, lumbering group would never have a chance in overtaking them close to Ningen territory. He knew they were closing in and had planned to attack while the women rested that night, so it was no surprise that they stumbled upon them shortly after crossing the borderlands. They were however unprepared for the good fortune of the exact situation—the women were currently being attacked by Youkai. If these demons were able to kill the miko, their only task would be to escape unnoticed and return to Higurashi lands. Manzo was not ashamed to acknowledge that he had no stomach for killing Hayate Higurashi’s daughter and if her death bloodied someone else’s hands, so much the better.
After only a few minutes, it became apparent their luck did not extend that far. The two miko had obviously fought together before and made a perfect team. Manzo had watched Leiko and the others train while they shared quarters, and they fought together when they kidnapped Kagome. He knew how disciplined and deadly miko could be. These women fought on another level, so fluid and precise their movements, so quick and efficient the killing. The taller of the two took out Youkai attackers from long range with her arrows; those who escaped being shot were cut down by Kagome Higurashi’s sword as they got closer. Their teamwork made it seem effortless. Manzo suddenly felt sick that the previous months had been so caught up in testing weapons and patrolling the grounds. They had not spent nearly enough time keeping their skills well honed for the battle they were about to face.
But it didn’t change their mission. Kagome had to die. Manzo signaled to the others. Just as Kagome killed the last Youkai, the Ningen men charged.
XXXXX
“Are you okay?” Taka asked.
“Yeah, you?”
Taka didn’t answer; instead her attention was focused over Kagome’s shoulder, a confused expression on her face.
Kagome spun around and saw the group of Ningen rushing toward them from the direction of the borderlands. It took a mere second for her to realize they were Kurono and Akagawa’s troops. “Dammit.”
“We can handle this,” Taka said, reaching for an arrow. “I see at least five but not many more.” Before she was able to take aim, there was a deafening noise and the rock next to them exploded.
Kagome rolled with the force of the blow, careful not to land too heavily. Did they have Leiko with them? She caught her breath and scanned the ground for her friend. “Taka!” The area was obscured by a veil of dust, making everything beyond her arm’s length little more than a shadow. She bit back a cough and jumped up, just as the first soldier burst through the haze. She barely got her blade raised to deflect the strike, though the familiar ring of metal was sharp and loud and helped clear her mind. He didn’t have a chance against her speed at close quarters. Rather than try to evade him, she stepped in and sliced up, bringing the soldier down without him so much as uttering a last moan.
Taka smiled as the dust settled. She could finally see to shoot. She took down the first man who thought he could reach her before she let loose her arrow. Kagome was only a dozen paces away, jumping over a soldier she had apparently just killed, to engage the next as he ran toward her. Taka reached behind and felt nothing but empty space. “Fuck.” Her remaining arrows—she knew there had to be at least several more—had scattered when she fell from the blast. The next man was upon her, and she crouched and slammed the end of her bow into his gut, then brought it down hard against the back of his head. She tossed her bow aside and took her knife from its sheath at her waist, cutting his throat before he could rise. While she was simply happy to have any weapon at all, a knife against a sword was not the match-up she preferred, and she stooped to pry the sword from the dying man’s hand.
“Taka! Watch out!”
Taka looked up to see a soldier barreling down on her, sword raised and ready to strike. The sick realization that she was moments away from being hacked apart seemed to pause time and steal her breath. Her eyes squeezed shut involuntarily, not wanting to witness the deathblow, but it never came. Suddenly Kagome was in front of her, stance set and sword crossed in front of her body, ready to defend. She took her time instead of killing him immediately, providing Taka an opportunity to get out of harm’s way.
“That blast…are there miko with them?” Taka gasped as she grabbed the few unbroken arrows near her and retrieved the bow. It did not appear to have suffered much damage from being used in a manner beyond its original function.
Kagome gave her a hand up and flicked blood from her sword. “I don’t know…if they aren’t though...” She hated to even think that Ningen had brought kayaku into Youkai territory. She pointed to the lone soldier left on the impromptu battlefield, running toward the bamboo forest. “He’s getting away.”
Taka took aim and watched as her arrow found its mark and the man crashed heavily to the ground, yelling a strangled cry, “Now!”
If Taka had felt that time ceased when her death seemed imminent minutes before, the next moments went so quickly, she felt as though everything was happening at once. She would reflect on them over the next days, tormenting herself about how things should have gone differently.
Taka pointed to an area just up ahead on the edge of the forest, where two more soldiers stood. Kagome immediately recognized the object in the hand of one and realized that the other carried a small, lit torch. “Kayaku,” she whispered. “Run. It’s me they’re after.”
“I can take him.” Taka raised her bow with tired, leaden arms and fired. They waited for the shot to connect, but instead of felling one of the men, it stuck fast in a thick bamboo culm, the dull thwack punctuating the fact that she had missed. “Go, Kagome,” she said. She aimed again, aware that her friend had not left her side, and let her last arrow fly. The man holding the torch dropped to his knees, his hands clutching at the shaft protruding from his stomach, but not before the other was able to light the rope that dangled from the metal tube.
“No!” Kagome screamed. Taka managed to summoned her strength and throw her knife toward the forest, just as Kagome pushed her out of the way. A flash came from the direction of the forest, followed by a nondescript loudness that echoed through countryside. Taka landed and put her arms over her head. For a brief moment, she thought nothing more would happen, that they were done, but then the ground around her shook and they were enveloped in a mass of dirt and debris.
Taka waited for the world to stop spinning before attempting to sit. She braced her hands against the earth and forced herself up. When the smoke cleared at the forest edge, Taka saw the Ningen soldier slumped against a tree, her knife jutting from his chest. “I don’t believe it…” She turned her attention to Kagome, struggling to get up, an arm’s length away. “Are you okay?”
“No…I’m hit,” she said through labored breaths.
“Kagome! 221; Taka helped her to sit and her eyes were instantly drawn to the dark stain spreading on Kagome’s brown clothes. The two women traded glances heavy with fear.
Kagome felt a sneaky dull pain radiating from her right side, a sensation that her body had weakened and was compromised, that she was not whole. She had been injured frequently enough to know that it was bad, but they had more immediate concerns for their survival. “The last soldier?”
“Dead.”
Kagome sighed with relief and lay back, wincing as she lifted her bulky shirt. She was alarmed at how wet and sticky it already was. She couldn’t see, but Taka’s gasp made her heart race. “How ugly is it?”
“Honestly?” Taka said, trying to maintain calm in her voice as she eased the waist of Kagome’s pants over her hip to get a better look. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen this kind of wound before.” There were three holes, a color of red so dark as to appear black, in Kagome’s side. Each streamed blood, but none seemed imminently fatal. Taka was a more than competent healer, and she was comfortable assessing battle injuries. These are no different than deep puncture wounds, she told herself. She took off her outer coat and pressed the sleeve to the lowest, most heavily bleeding wound. She took Kagome’s hand and laid it over the cloth lump. “Can you press, even if it hurts?”
Kagome answered by following instructions, worry and pain twisting her features. She willed herself not to think about how close the hand was to her womb.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, so I am going to treat the least scary wound first.” Taka first gathered handfuls of clean snow and bathed her skin, washing away the blood and hoping the cold would numb some of the pain. She took Kagome’s knife from her pack and gently prodded the wound with the tip, trying to ignore Kagome’s gritted teeth and sharp intake of breath. A pea-sized piece of metal was buried under the top layers of skin, right on her lowest floating rib. Taka decided, because it was only a shallow flesh wound, the hit must have been from a glancing blow. She shuddered to think of the damage it would have done if they had been closer. The metal ball slid out with little fuss, followed by a small trickle of blood. Taka laid three pink-glowing fingers on the area and waited for the flow to stop and the skin underneath to knit together. “One down,” she said with a heart-felt smile. I can do this.
“One down,” Kagome echoed. Other than Gina, there was no one she trusted more than Taka to treat serious injuries, but that didn’t change the fact that they were in the middle of hostile territory with no supplies and the afternoon sun sinking quickly.
Taka moved on to the next wound, two inches below the first. This metal ball was lodged deeper, but she was still able to use the tip of Kagome’s knife to coax it up and out, without further damaging the skin and muscle underneath. Once she got the bleeding to stop, she moved on…to the wound that would require the most expertise, the most luck. It was low, on the right side of her belly, close to her hip. She gently pulled the coat sleeve away to expose the ravaged skin. She used the snow to cleanse the blood, and her heart sank at what she saw. Blood pooled up from the hole almost immediately—it was deep and dangerous. And there was no way she could treat it here.
“Taka,” Kagome whispered, her eyes shut tight, “the babe?”
“I don’t know.” Taka blinked back tears. “I’m more worried about how close it is to your groin. Can’t have you bleeding out on me.” She said it lightly, trying to imply that that would never happen, but she had seen too many people die from blood loss due to injuries to that area of the body. She just hoped kayaku caused less inner damage than a sword stroke. She made a single, short attempt at extricating the metal. Right away she could see it would be no good. “Kagome, this one is too deep. I can’t get to it without cutting you more, and this knife it simply too big for such delicate surgery. Not to mention without suture string and a needle, I don’t dare. The best I can do is to seal the top layers of skin and get it out when we make it to the Western stronghold. Do you think you can go on?”
Kagome nodded. She trusted Taka to tell her the truth and felt mild relief that things may still turn out okay. If only getting to the stronghold were an easy task; they could still be attacked at any moment by any of the many people who wanted her dead, Kagome would not be able to travel as quickly and they would be fighting against the time it took for infection to set it, and there was always the possibility that the weather could become hostile. She felt sick—now that they were so close to their goal, they were dependent on the whims of fate. The warmth of Taka’s hands as her miko energy flowed from them and repaired her flesh went far in relaxing her. After several minutes, Taka pulled Kaogme’s shirt back down and sat back, tired from the concentrated use of her powers. Kagome took her hand and squeezed. “Thanks. I’ll be okay.”
“Kagome, this is my fault,” Taka said, her emotions coming perilously close to the surface. “If I hadn’t missed with my first arrow—”
“Stop. If you hadn’t spotted them, we’d probably both be dead right now.” She carefully rose to her feet, then lifted her shirt to check that the bleeding wouldn’t start again. The most painful part was her ribs, which she thought had perhaps been broken because drawing even a short breath was agony. “We need to fill our waterskins and find shelter before nightfall.”
Taka glanced at the dozen or more dead Ningen and Youkai lying on the ground around them. “Let’s go a little farther upstream. I can’t breathe here.” Taka washed and dried Kagome’s knife before returning it to her. “I’ve got to go get mine. I still can’t believe I hit that soldier.”
Kagome’s short laugh was cut off by the pain in her side. “You always had remarkable aim and the strongest throwing arm at the Sisterhood.”
“Hmmm.” Taka hated herself for missing the first shot. She should have been able to kill both men before they could use kayaku.
“Taka…” Kagome said, as if she could read her friend’s mind. “I don’t know how heavy it is, but can you get the weapon when you go back for your knife? If I don’t make it…don’t look at me that way, I fully intend on making it there alive…you can give it to the Youkai so maybe they can learn to defend against it. It may be the last chance we have to preserve the peace.”
Taka knew better than to argue, though she would have preferred to stay far away from the Ningen weapon. “Always thinking of the big picture? Never of yourself?”
Kagome’s shoulders sagged, and she came close to crying. There was so much riding on their success, the very fragile peace that could change history and save countless lives. She suddenly felt exhausted and burdened and torn apart. “I have to.”
Taka gently hugged her. “Right now, I want you to be entirely selfish. Think only of you and your survival. Promise?” She felt Kagome nod and heard her sniff back tears. “I’m going to go get my knife and that evil…thing. Then we’ll find a safe place to sleep.”
The women smiled reassurance at each other before Taka turned and sprinted in the direction of the forest. Kagome’s smile faded as she looked downstream at the carnage. How long, she wondered, before carrion birds circled the sky and drew attention to the strange scene of devastation?
Converting /tmp/phpPkbcyk to /dev/stdout
The door slid open abruptly, and Sesshoumaru exited, grim-faced and his unmasked Youki pulsing with anger.
“My father must be protected at all costs,” he said to Kouga. “Increase patrols around the stronghold. If she is coming here, I want to find her first.”
After a moment, the other inhabitants of the room began to spill out.
“At least we have reassurance that the Council wants to keep the peace,” Lady Higa said.
“That means little if kayaku is still a threat,” Commander Endo replied. “And it seems quite convenient that Ningen decided to tell us now, when she is already well on her way.”
Okuri listened for his name and mention of a conspiracy on the lips of the advisors, but there was nothing incriminating, nothing to indicate they knew of his deception. Deeming himself safe for the moment and wanting to hear more, he stepped out into the corridor and saw Lord Sato walking in his direction. “Has something happened?” he asked, expertly feigning innocent curiosity.
“Yesterday morning we received a letter from Lord Okashita of the Ningen Council,” Sato said. “Lady Inoue immediately sent word to the House of the East, whose spies have most closely been keeping an eye on certain members of the Council. She received a reply earlier today confirming the authenticity of the claims in Okashita’s letter.”
“Which are?”
“They now acknowledge that they were mistaken. Kagome Higurashi is alive.”
“We already knew that.”
“Yes, but there’s more. They have learned she is making her way back to the West.”
Okuri blanched. Keeping a letter out of Sesshoumaru’s hands was difficult enough. There was no way he could keep Kagome away from him if she showed up at the gates. “Surely…she’s not. That’s suicidal.”
“The message said she is coming to kill General Inutaisho.” Sato shook his head; the developing situation had him more tired and on edge than he had been since his son lay dying. “Lady Kaede, the Head Priestess at the Shrine of the Miko Sisterhood, gave Kagome shelter after she fled from here. Over week ago, Kagome learned that the General is still alive. She spoke about completing her job, and Kaede tried to hold her there, but Kagome left in the dark of night. Kaede searched for her and reported to the Shrine’s feudal lord, General Miyamoto. He then went immediately to other members of the Council. Lady Inoue’s own spy corroborates that General Miyamoto was seen coming and going from the Miko Sisterhood. It seems Kagome Higurashi has not abandoned her plan of assassination. We have yet to figure out how this impacts the decision to return to War; General Inutaisho’s well-being is our first concern at the moment.”
“Dreadful news,” Okuri said, smiling secretly. It appeared his former Ningen allies had another move left in the game they played. Now he knew she was headed toward the West and could plan accordingly.
XXXXX
The signpost that marked the end of the neutral land between Youkai and Ningen territories was only noteworthy in that it was unremarkable—a small wooden post carved with the words end marchland.
“Funny,” Taka said, “we are now officially walking into danger, but I don’t feel any different. Youkai territory looks just like Ningen lands.” The hills, dotted with rhododendron thickets and crossed by spring-fed steams, they traversed an hour ago when they were in Ningen territory extended the length of the borderlands and did not change upon reaching the other side. “Even that sign is unimpressed.”
“Well, as I’ve been hoping was my point, our similarities are stronger than our differences,” Kagome said. “I like to imagine someday there will be not only peace, but a future where Youkai and Ningen live together in a land without hard borders.” She rubbed her still-flat belly thoughtfully. The fatigue she had been experiencing was explained by the harsh conditions to which she had been subjected over the past weeks, but her monthly blood had not yet begun, leading her to a cautious acceptance that she may indeed be pregnant. It was a realization that under other circumstances would have given her a circumspect pleasure; now, traveling on foot during a harsh winter and wanted dead or alive, she only felt worry. “I wish I was more confident, Taka. The closer we get, the more apprehensive I feel. Especially since I’m drawing you into it.”
“You know as well as I that I insisted on coming with you,” Taka said. She gestured across the meadow to a slow-moving stream up ahead. “We have been walking without break since this mid-day. Let’s sit for a while and have a bite to eat.”
Kagome grinned with gratitude at her friend. They had been walking for five primarily uneventful days, which passed by quickly, despite Kagome’s increasing tiredness. It took them little time to find a suitable spot to sit and rest.
“How many days until we reach the Western lands, assuming, of course, and I know I risk quite a bit by saying this at all, we have the luck and favorable conditions we’ve been blessed with so far?” Taka cut a chunk off an apple and handed it to Kagome.
“No more than two, I think. Thanks.” Kagome stifled a yawn and bit into the tart fruit, pleased it didn’t turn her stomach the way the dried fish they had consumed the evening before had. “The maps I looked at seemed to show the travel would be fairly easy. No wide rivers to ford, no steep terrain.”
“Good news,” Taka said. “Now why don’t you tell me what is on your mind.”
Kagome sighed, divided between her need to talk and fear of giving voice to her doubts. “I was so sure I could march through the gates of the stronghold and declare my innocence, but now…I don’t know. I’ve been gone from the Youkai for so long. I’ve been gone almost five weeks…Taka, that’s more than half the total time I lived with them. Why did I think they will believe me so readily? I am a stranger to them.”
“You don’t know that, Kagome.” Taka took Kagome’s hand and held it. She wanted nothing more than to slow time and let her friend catch up on needed sleep. In her experience, Kagome was most vulnerable to irrational self-doubt when tired, though she allowed that there was a frightening possibility that those doubts were well founded.
“No, I don’t,” she conceded, “but I don’t know anything. What if the General believes I tried to kill him? What could I possibly say to defend myself? I don’t know the evidence against me. Okuri had help. Whoever he was, he must have played his part convincingly for Sesshoumaru to believe him. I so badly want to continue the peace treaty. What if I’m completely wrong and this is a fool’s errand?”
“Don’t lose faith. There is no point in dwelling—” She stopped short and tightened her grip around her knife. A glance at Kagome told her she felt it too. Youkai. And they were coming quickly.
They stood and took note of their surroundings. There was a forest of bamboo a short distance to their left that could provide cover if they were able reach it, but before they could act, a group of a dozen fully armed boar Youkai appeared over the hill on the other side of the stream and rapidly closed in on them. They would never make the run to shelter.
“The boar Youkai are spending the winter near here,” Kagome said. “Let’s wait to see what they want.” She remembered the trouble she had caused with them the first time she had come this way.
As they approached, Kagome and Taka heard their heavy grunts and curses about Ningen and miko. “Gods be damned. He didn’t say there would be more than one,” one of them said.
“When has he ever told us the whole story? He’s as bad as the rest of the Taiyoukai.”
“They are probably here to bring me to Sesshoumaru,” Kagome said in a low voice. She took a step forward and put out her hands. “We mean no harm. If you—” She was interrupted by two spears sailing their way. They dodged the weapons, then leaped behind the rock they had been sitting on.
“Kagome…they don’t seem interested in our peaceful surrender.”
Kagome nodded. She did not know on whose orders the Youkai were attacking—she had assumed the Taiyoukai would at least want to interrogate her before execution—but at that moment it hardly mattered. “I guess we fight then.” Kagome unsheathed General Inutaisho’s sword, and Taka fit an arrow to her bowstring.
XXXXX
“Whoa, stop.” Manzo Ota, General Akagawa’s second-in-command, grabbed the arm of the soldier in charge of kayaku. “The weapon is to be used as a last resort.” He was disturbed by the zeal with which a few of the men had talked about using kayaku on Kagome Higurashi. Akagawa made it clear that though they were under orders to kill her, they were to leave no evidence of Ningen involvement, no way to tie the generals to her. Kayaku was only to be employed if there was no other choice. “We may not even need it,” Manzo said, indicating the scene that was beginning to play out before them.
“I know,” the soldier said, brushing him aside. He uncovered a large metal-covered tube and sack of black powder, then nodded to the man next to him to kindle a fire. “Just getting it ready. In case.”
“Go over there and wait,” Manzo said, gesturing toward the bamboo forest. “Give us cover. Target the one with the bow. Get Higurashi only if we can’t. Don’t use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”
The group of Ningen soldiers had been tracking the two women for several days, hoping to catch them before they got too deep into Youkai territory. The size of their force was smaller than Manzo had wanted—he was concerned that eight men would not be sufficient to take on two highly skilled miko in battle—but their greatest need was to travel quickly to catch up with them. The likelihood of victory of an entire squad was more than offset by the fact that a large, lumbering group would never have a chance in overtaking them close to Ningen territory. He knew they were closing in and had planned to attack while the women rested that night, so it was no surprise that they stumbled upon them shortly after crossing the borderlands. They were however unprepared for the good fortune of the exact situation—the women were currently being attacked by Youkai. If these demons were able to kill the miko, their only task would be to escape unnoticed and return to Higurashi lands. Manzo was not ashamed to acknowledge that he had no stomach for killing Hayate Higurashi’s daughter and if her death bloodied someone else’s hands, so much the better.
After only a few minutes, it became apparent their luck did not extend that far. The two miko had obviously fought together before and made a perfect team. Manzo had watched Leiko and the others train while they shared quarters, and they fought together when they kidnapped Kagome. He knew how disciplined and deadly miko could be. These women fought on another level, so fluid and precise their movements, so quick and efficient the killing. The taller of the two took out Youkai attackers from long range with her arrows; those who escaped being shot were cut down by Kagome Higurashi’s sword as they got closer. Their teamwork made it seem effortless. Manzo suddenly felt sick that the previous months had been so caught up in testing weapons and patrolling the grounds. They had not spent nearly enough time keeping their skills well honed for the battle they were about to face.
But it didn’t change their mission. Kagome had to die. Manzo signaled to the others. Just as Kagome killed the last Youkai, the Ningen men charged.
XXXXX
“Are you okay?” Taka asked.
“Yeah, you?”
Taka didn’t answer; instead her attention was focused over Kagome’s shoulder, a confused expression on her face.
Kagome spun around and saw the group of Ningen rushing toward them from the direction of the borderlands. It took a mere second for her to realize they were Kurono and Akagawa’s troops. “Dammit.”
“We can handle this,” Taka said, reaching for an arrow. “I see at least five but not many more.” Before she was able to take aim, there was a deafening noise and the rock next to them exploded.
Kagome rolled with the force of the blow, careful not to land too heavily. Did they have Leiko with them? She caught her breath and scanned the ground for her friend. “Taka!” The area was obscured by a veil of dust, making everything beyond her arm’s length little more than a shadow. She bit back a cough and jumped up, just as the first soldier burst through the haze. She barely got her blade raised to deflect the strike, though the familiar ring of metal was sharp and loud and helped clear her mind. He didn’t have a chance against her speed at close quarters. Rather than try to evade him, she stepped in and sliced up, bringing the soldier down without him so much as uttering a last moan.
Taka smiled as the dust settled. She could finally see to shoot. She took down the first man who thought he could reach her before she let loose her arrow. Kagome was only a dozen paces away, jumping over a soldier she had apparently just killed, to engage the next as he ran toward her. Taka reached behind and felt nothing but empty space. “Fuck.” Her remaining arrows—she knew there had to be at least several more—had scattered when she fell from the blast. The next man was upon her, and she crouched and slammed the end of her bow into his gut, then brought it down hard against the back of his head. She tossed her bow aside and took her knife from its sheath at her waist, cutting his throat before he could rise. While she was simply happy to have any weapon at all, a knife against a sword was not the match-up she preferred, and she stooped to pry the sword from the dying man’s hand.
“Taka! Watch out!”
Taka looked up to see a soldier barreling down on her, sword raised and ready to strike. The sick realization that she was moments away from being hacked apart seemed to pause time and steal her breath. Her eyes squeezed shut involuntarily, not wanting to witness the deathblow, but it never came. Suddenly Kagome was in front of her, stance set and sword crossed in front of her body, ready to defend. She took her time instead of killing him immediately, providing Taka an opportunity to get out of harm’s way.
“That blast…are there miko with them?” Taka gasped as she grabbed the few unbroken arrows near her and retrieved the bow. It did not appear to have suffered much damage from being used in a manner beyond its original function.
Kagome gave her a hand up and flicked blood from her sword. “I don’t know…if they aren’t though...” She hated to even think that Ningen had brought kayaku into Youkai territory. She pointed to the lone soldier left on the impromptu battlefield, running toward the bamboo forest. “He’s getting away.”
Taka took aim and watched as her arrow found its mark and the man crashed heavily to the ground, yelling a strangled cry, “Now!”
If Taka had felt that time ceased when her death seemed imminent minutes before, the next moments went so quickly, she felt as though everything was happening at once. She would reflect on them over the next days, tormenting herself about how things should have gone differently.
Taka pointed to an area just up ahead on the edge of the forest, where two more soldiers stood. Kagome immediately recognized the object in the hand of one and realized that the other carried a small, lit torch. “Kayaku,” she whispered. “Run. It’s me they’re after.”
“I can take him.” Taka raised her bow with tired, leaden arms and fired. They waited for the shot to connect, but instead of felling one of the men, it stuck fast in a thick bamboo culm, the dull thwack punctuating the fact that she had missed. “Go, Kagome,” she said. She aimed again, aware that her friend had not left her side, and let her last arrow fly. The man holding the torch dropped to his knees, his hands clutching at the shaft protruding from his stomach, but not before the other was able to light the rope that dangled from the metal tube.
“No!” Kagome screamed. Taka managed to summoned her strength and throw her knife toward the forest, just as Kagome pushed her out of the way. A flash came from the direction of the forest, followed by a nondescript loudness that echoed through countryside. Taka landed and put her arms over her head. For a brief moment, she thought nothing more would happen, that they were done, but then the ground around her shook and they were enveloped in a mass of dirt and debris.
Taka waited for the world to stop spinning before attempting to sit. She braced her hands against the earth and forced herself up. When the smoke cleared at the forest edge, Taka saw the Ningen soldier slumped against a tree, her knife jutting from his chest. “I don’t believe it…” She turned her attention to Kagome, struggling to get up, an arm’s length away. “Are you okay?”
“No…I’m hit,” she said through labored breaths.
“Kagome! 221; Taka helped her to sit and her eyes were instantly drawn to the dark stain spreading on Kagome’s brown clothes. The two women traded glances heavy with fear.
Kagome felt a sneaky dull pain radiating from her right side, a sensation that her body had weakened and was compromised, that she was not whole. She had been injured frequently enough to know that it was bad, but they had more immediate concerns for their survival. “The last soldier?”
“Dead.”
Kagome sighed with relief and lay back, wincing as she lifted her bulky shirt. She was alarmed at how wet and sticky it already was. She couldn’t see, but Taka’s gasp made her heart race. “How ugly is it?”
“Honestly?” Taka said, trying to maintain calm in her voice as she eased the waist of Kagome’s pants over her hip to get a better look. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen this kind of wound before.” There were three holes, a color of red so dark as to appear black, in Kagome’s side. Each streamed blood, but none seemed imminently fatal. Taka was a more than competent healer, and she was comfortable assessing battle injuries. These are no different than deep puncture wounds, she told herself. She took off her outer coat and pressed the sleeve to the lowest, most heavily bleeding wound. She took Kagome’s hand and laid it over the cloth lump. “Can you press, even if it hurts?”
Kagome answered by following instructions, worry and pain twisting her features. She willed herself not to think about how close the hand was to her womb.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, so I am going to treat the least scary wound first.” Taka first gathered handfuls of clean snow and bathed her skin, washing away the blood and hoping the cold would numb some of the pain. She took Kagome’s knife from her pack and gently prodded the wound with the tip, trying to ignore Kagome’s gritted teeth and sharp intake of breath. A pea-sized piece of metal was buried under the top layers of skin, right on her lowest floating rib. Taka decided, because it was only a shallow flesh wound, the hit must have been from a glancing blow. She shuddered to think of the damage it would have done if they had been closer. The metal ball slid out with little fuss, followed by a small trickle of blood. Taka laid three pink-glowing fingers on the area and waited for the flow to stop and the skin underneath to knit together. “One down,” she said with a heart-felt smile. I can do this.
“One down,” Kagome echoed. Other than Gina, there was no one she trusted more than Taka to treat serious injuries, but that didn’t change the fact that they were in the middle of hostile territory with no supplies and the afternoon sun sinking quickly.
Taka moved on to the next wound, two inches below the first. This metal ball was lodged deeper, but she was still able to use the tip of Kagome’s knife to coax it up and out, without further damaging the skin and muscle underneath. Once she got the bleeding to stop, she moved on…to the wound that would require the most expertise, the most luck. It was low, on the right side of her belly, close to her hip. She gently pulled the coat sleeve away to expose the ravaged skin. She used the snow to cleanse the blood, and her heart sank at what she saw. Blood pooled up from the hole almost immediately—it was deep and dangerous. And there was no way she could treat it here.
“Taka,” Kagome whispered, her eyes shut tight, “the babe?”
“I don’t know.” Taka blinked back tears. “I’m more worried about how close it is to your groin. Can’t have you bleeding out on me.” She said it lightly, trying to imply that that would never happen, but she had seen too many people die from blood loss due to injuries to that area of the body. She just hoped kayaku caused less inner damage than a sword stroke. She made a single, short attempt at extricating the metal. Right away she could see it would be no good. “Kagome, this one is too deep. I can’t get to it without cutting you more, and this knife it simply too big for such delicate surgery. Not to mention without suture string and a needle, I don’t dare. The best I can do is to seal the top layers of skin and get it out when we make it to the Western stronghold. Do you think you can go on?”
Kagome nodded. She trusted Taka to tell her the truth and felt mild relief that things may still turn out okay. If only getting to the stronghold were an easy task; they could still be attacked at any moment by any of the many people who wanted her dead, Kagome would not be able to travel as quickly and they would be fighting against the time it took for infection to set it, and there was always the possibility that the weather could become hostile. She felt sick—now that they were so close to their goal, they were dependent on the whims of fate. The warmth of Taka’s hands as her miko energy flowed from them and repaired her flesh went far in relaxing her. After several minutes, Taka pulled Kaogme’s shirt back down and sat back, tired from the concentrated use of her powers. Kagome took her hand and squeezed. “Thanks. I’ll be okay.”
“Kagome, this is my fault,” Taka said, her emotions coming perilously close to the surface. “If I hadn’t missed with my first arrow—”
“Stop. If you hadn’t spotted them, we’d probably both be dead right now.” She carefully rose to her feet, then lifted her shirt to check that the bleeding wouldn’t start again. The most painful part was her ribs, which she thought had perhaps been broken because drawing even a short breath was agony. “We need to fill our waterskins and find shelter before nightfall.”
Taka glanced at the dozen or more dead Ningen and Youkai lying on the ground around them. “Let’s go a little farther upstream. I can’t breathe here.” Taka washed and dried Kagome’s knife before returning it to her. “I’ve got to go get mine. I still can’t believe I hit that soldier.”
Kagome’s short laugh was cut off by the pain in her side. “You always had remarkable aim and the strongest throwing arm at the Sisterhood.”
“Hmmm.” Taka hated herself for missing the first shot. She should have been able to kill both men before they could use kayaku.
“Taka…” Kagome said, as if she could read her friend’s mind. “I don’t know how heavy it is, but can you get the weapon when you go back for your knife? If I don’t make it…don’t look at me that way, I fully intend on making it there alive…you can give it to the Youkai so maybe they can learn to defend against it. It may be the last chance we have to preserve the peace.”
Taka knew better than to argue, though she would have preferred to stay far away from the Ningen weapon. “Always thinking of the big picture? Never of yourself?”
Kagome’s shoulders sagged, and she came close to crying. There was so much riding on their success, the very fragile peace that could change history and save countless lives. She suddenly felt exhausted and burdened and torn apart. “I have to.”
Taka gently hugged her. “Right now, I want you to be entirely selfish. Think only of you and your survival. Promise?” She felt Kagome nod and heard her sniff back tears. “I’m going to go get my knife and that evil…thing. Then we’ll find a safe place to sleep.”
The women smiled reassurance at each other before Taka turned and sprinted in the direction of the forest. Kagome’s smile faded as she looked downstream at the carnage. How long, she wondered, before carrion birds circled the sky and drew attention to the strange scene of devastation?
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