InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity Redux: Vivication ❯ Bad Habits ( Epilogue )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Lounging against his right shoulder in the doorway, slowly shaking his head as he crossed his arms over his chest and almost smiled—almost—Fai watched as Saori, surrounded by the orphans who were in her charge for the weekend, herded their ‘prey’ through the garden and toward the veranda.  The children looked inordinately proud of their accomplishment, as did Saori.  The captives, however . . .

Fai nearly grimaced but managed to keep his expression entirely blanked.  Trussed up like game fowl on the way to the butcher’s block, they were, and some of them were behaving a little better than the others, all things considered.

To be completely honest, he wasn’t entirely sure, just how Saori had managed to talk those four into cooperating for the exercise.  Then again, he supposed it didn’t really surprise him.  After all, she . . .

Well, she had a way with people, in general, now didn’t she?  Not one of them, it seemed, was really able to resist her, and that was fine with Fai.  After all, he’d had a few meetings he couldn’t get out of, so he really wasn’t able to drop everything to help her with the weekend excursion, even though he’d wanted to.

So, Saori, Dmitri, and the rest of the orphanage staff had taken the children, deep into the forest behind the castle for the weekend, camping, fishing, brushing up on their skills—and spending the time, trying to hunt down the four targets with very little help from the adults.  It looked like they were all able to successfully locate and apprehend them, too . . .

He sighed, the smile finally surfacing on his lips as the children started to climb pile onto the stone patio.  Yerik shot his brother a cheeky grin, giving a little shrug as his captors danced around him, jeering at him, basically refusing to let the hunter forget that he had been captured by what looked to be three mid-teenage kids.  It wasn’t surprising in the least that Saori had no trouble at all in gaining his compliance.  Yerik rarely said no to his sister-in-law, after all.

Next up the steps was Konstantin, who was still grumbling loudly about the youths ‘callous’ treatment of him since his capture.  Saori caught Fai’s eye and giggled, covering her amusement with a quick cough into her balled-up fist.  From what he could gather from Kostya’s complaints, the children had dealt him dirty, leaving him tied up all night since they’d apparently brought him in on Saturday.

Behind him came Taras, along with his younger brother, who seemed to be having the time of his life, herding his brother around.  The youngster, Dash, was even leading Taras around by a long chain that was secured to his belt.  Taras, on the other hand, was at least trying to pretend to be properly offended.  He struck Fai as the type who wasn’t entirely sure, how to be a carefree young man, but he was trying, and that, Fai was certain, was due to Saori’s influence.

It had taken nearly eight months to track down the boy and their uncle in the rough terrain of the New Zealand landscape, but Taine had done well, and he’d brought Dash back easily enough, but the uncle, unfortunately, had made like a coward and sneaked away.  Taine had decided that bringing the boy back was far more important than trying to track down the uncle again, and, in the long run, he was right.  Taras and Dash were inseparable, and that was good enough for everyone involved, and Taras had set up an information office, gathering intel from all over the region and most often, coming up with stuff that Fai would never have been able to find out on his own.  Earning an honest living that he could be proud of?  Taras was damned good at what he did, and he had every reason to be damned proud, too.

Last and most surprisingly, however, was Taine, who was pretty well duct taped almost like a mummy, along with the group of four teenaged girls who apparently had something to prove.  Narrowing his eyes, grimacing slightly as he considered how much effort it was going to be to get Taine out of that mess, Fai slowly shook his head again.

Now, though, the kids were having some difficulty in deciding what, exactly, to do with their quarry.  They all seemed to be whispering within their small groups while giving their targets rather calculating looks—looks that made Fai hide a smile of his own behind a strategically raised hand.

“How did you get Taine to agree to let himself be hunted?” he asked as Saori hurried over, slipped her arms around his waist.

“Oh, I didn’t ask him,” she replied, giving Fai a quick squeeze and a kiss on the cheek.

“Hmm?”

She wrinkled her nose.  “Well, I . . . I might have just . . . um . . . grabbed him by the hand and dragged him off with us . . .”

Fai blinked.  “You . . . You kidnapped one of my hunters?” he deadpanned.

“No,” she argued, shaking her head stubbornly.  “I appropriated him.  Huge difference.”

Fai snorted loudly.

“It worked with you,” she offered, the smile that curved on her lips, entirely unrepentant.

“Only because I wanted you to appropriate me . . .” He sighed.  “We really need to discuss this penchant of yours of appropriating people,” he complained.

She giggled.  “I’ll appropriate you later on, Fai,” she offered, raising her eyebrows, her voice falling to a husky purr.

He gave up with a chuckle.  “I think I’d be okay with that, Saori.  Just, uh . . . none of that with them, understood?”

Her answer was a loud laugh as she pulled him down for a kiss.

1:10 am
June 11, 2018

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A/N:

Well, that’s it … I hope you enjoyed this section of my brain lol … Feel free to join me in Purity Zero … Since Anhanguera is such an intense story, I’m going to keep it as secondary while posting Zero as my main work.  I’m going to take a week off then start posting Purity Zero starting on July 9.  Until then, the prologue and the first chapter are already posted, so give them a read …

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Final Thought from Saori:
All’s well that ends well!
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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Vivication):  I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga.  Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al.  I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

~Sue~