InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Rescue Me ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Hey guys, sorry I've taken so long. I know that this is WAY late, and its shamefully short, but I can't get anything more, and exams are soon. So, it's better than nothing, right?

 

Oh, by the way; both versions of this chapter are the same on Media Miner and FanFiction.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi does. I'm only borrowing her characters and twisting their lives for my own amusement.

 

Summary: Kagome is the daughter of a ruthless pirate who rapes, pillages and kills. Her life is turned upside down when her father's ship sinks. She meets the natives of the island that they washed up on. Dog demons. But it is the half-demon that catches her eye.

 

Rescue Me

 

Chapter Two

 

The Taijiya Isles were basically one big labour camp. The natives of the island were inuyoukai, but the taijiya had colonised the island long ago and nearly driven the proud race to extinction. Then, they had rounded up the remaining demons and stuck them in mines, fisheries, or felling logs in the forests of the nearby, uninhabited islands.

 

But, as hard as the demons worked, they were treated well. It wasn't like on the mainland, where they were sold to and fro in the slave market. They were their own people, making a living in a society. Granted, they weren't exactly equal in that society, but it was a step up from what they would've received on the mainland.

 

A half demon sat on the cliff at the north of the island. It was unusually windy today, making his long silver hair fan out in front of him. He was bandaging his left arm with a scowl. He'd had an accident in the mines and would be unable to work for three weeks. Though he'd probably be healed overnight, it was standard procedure, just in case.

 

“Oi!” Golden eyes looked over his shoulder at the taijiya woman that had called the half demon. He stilled the actions of his clawed fingers with the bandages.

 

“What?” He grunted, turning back to his bandaging. The half demon was shirtless, revealing long, angry red scars on his back.

 

“I think it's about time you told us what those scars are from on your back and why they open every new moon.” She said firmly. He made a face.

 

“No.”

 

“You have to tell us if we're going to stop it!” She huffed.

 

“Never mind it.” He barked. “Just go back to your monk, Sango. I'm sure he's probably been slapped into unconsciousness by now.”

 

“Miroku will be fine on his own for a little while.” The taijiya named Sango glared at his back. “Look, please tell me.” She quietly pleaded, sitting next to him.

 

“I said no.”

 

“You can't run away from your past forever.” Sango warned.

 

“Watch me.”

 

The taijiya gave an impressive growl for a human and clenched her hands into fists. “Look, Inuyasha…” She sighed. “You're a good friend I worry about you; so does Miroku. We just want to help you.”

 

Inuyasha dropped his gaze from her face and focused out at sea. There was a ship off in the distance; he thought it looked kind of familiar. He shook the though from his mind as he stared blankly out. “Will you leave me alone if I tell you?”

 

“If it's nothing serious.”

 

“Fine.” He relented. “Almost sixteen years ago, I was with a band of pirates.”

 

“You were a pirate?!” Sango gasped in shock.

 

He shook his head. “No, I was a prisoner.” He frowned. “The captain would kidnap women and rape them; I was supposed to tell him if they got pregnant. I still remember the last one.” He sighed ruefully. “She was a Lady of high standing. Beautiful, eloquent, graceful… and he tainted her. Planted his filthy seed in her belly and let it grow. The kid'd be fifteen soon, if not already.”

 

Sango looked out across the water too. “You liked this woman?”

 

“She wasn't repulsive.” Inuyasha shrugged. “But we were pretty good… friends. Lady Kikyou was my first friend.”

 

“So then what?” Sango prompted, knowing there was more to the story than that. Inuyasha cast his mind back.

 

“Well…”

 

“Filthy bastard!” Inuyasha strained against the chains that kept him on the wall. “Come in `ere and violate her in her sleep, you pig? I'll get outta here and you'll fuckin' regret it, you sick freak!”

 

“I suggest you calm your temper.” Bankotsu sneered. “You forget, half demon, that it is the new moon tonight.”

 

“You don't scare me, you dickless coward!” Inuyasha roared.

 

Bankotsu stepped over the sleeping woman to come nose-to-nose with a snarling Inuyasha. “You're going to regret that, half demon.” He sneered, before turning to stride out of the cell, all thoughts of touching the woman fled from his mind.

 

“…and that night, I was whipped from midnight `til dawn.” Inuyasha still stared out impassively. “The wounds open `cause of the poison on the whip. It's still in my human blood.”

 

Sango looked horrified. “Inuyasha…” She breathed, staring at his blank face in shock.

 

He shrugged. “I've learned to deal with it.”

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Kagome bolted up in bed as the ship gave a lurch. Asuka was thrown out of her bed to land on the floor with a `thump' and a groan. Kagome looked outside frantically - it was pouring down rain and the waves were rising and falling at an alarming rate.

 

A crash of thunder sounded and Kagome's hair stood on end as a bolt of lighting struck somewhere on the ship. She could hear the shouting and the yelling and the screaming. `Mother!' She thought frantically, not even stopping to change her nightgown as she raced towards the prisoner's cells.

 

The guard was quickly unfastening the cell doors after a quick order that Kagome barked to him. She had a high standing on the ship as the Captain's daughter - no one questioned her authority. “Come, Mother!” She shrieked. “We're caught in the storm! Get above deck!” Another flash of lightning struck the ship. The thunder that came with it literally shook them to their bones. Kikyou only nodded and followed Kagome's order. She looked back only once to see Kagome wave her on urgently and turn back to help the others. Swallowing down the dry lump in her throat, she scrambled up above.

 

The ship had struck some rocks, and was fast-sinking. Men, women, and the few children that they had on board were running around like mad people, pushing and shoving to get to the lifeboats. Kikyou was grabbed around the middle and flung into one by a rather bulky pirate - one she recognised as the guard to her cell - as he followed her. Their boat was lowered into the choppy seas and the pirates aboard immediately began to row away as fast as they could.

 

The guard looked back at Kikyou as he sat down at his rowing station in front of her. “Kagome made me promise a long time ago that if this should ever happen that I was to make sure you got away safe.” He grunted. Kikyou's throat closed up.

 

“But what about my daughter?! She's still on that ship!” Kikyou shrieked. No one answered her.

 

The night was a blur. The ship struck more rocks, flooding the hull with water. Kikyou knew there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone. Tears stung her eyes as she fought the urge to vomit. There was every possibility that Kagome was still on board with some of the prisoners and crew that hadn't managed to get away.

 

The boats rowed a good distance away before the occupants turned to watch the ship go down. Men were shouting at each other across the sea, women were clinging to each other, sobbing hysterically, and children were panicked, some not understanding what was going on. It wasn't until everyone heard Captain Bankotsu's voice that everyone began to come under some semblance of order.

 

“All boats toward the largest island!” He roared over the storm. Only some boats heard him, but others were quick to notice and follow the majority. It was, in actual fact, a rather short time, but Kikyou felt as if it were an entire lifetime. Her daughter's years passed through her memory unbidden; her first cry, her first tooth, her first word, her first step. Her first… everything. Everything up until that moment in time that had anything to do with her daughter came to her mind, reducing the woman to tears.

 

She knew Kagome was still on that ship as it went down.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Kagome was thrown around in the hull of the ship as it violently rocked back and forth. She had a kitsune cub clutched to her chest as she leapt over various objects floating in the water that was fast flooding the ship. It was about up to her knees now.

 

She screamed and crouched to protect the child as the wall to her left burst and flooded the hallway with water. She felt some of the larger pieces of wood break and fall onto her back, but none of them penetrated her skin. The little boy shrieked and clasped at Kagome's breast with trembling hands. Stroking his hair to try to calm the child, Kagome waded over to the stairs and scrambled up them onto deck.

 

It was worse than she could have imagined.

 

People were clinging to each other, wailing to the kami to save their miserable souls from a watery grave. Kagome looked out over the ocean, one arm clutching at the whimpering kitsune, the other hand with an iron grip around the banister to prevent herself from toppling over with the force of the ship's rocking. She could barely take two steps without stumbling.

 

Lurching forward, she was winded as her stomach came into contact with the banister next to her. She tumbled over, landing on her back, with the kitsune on top of her. The rocking of the ship hindered her progress as she tried to push herself up again. Finally managing to stagger to her feet, the cub still in her arms, she succeeded in bolting across the wet and slipper deck, coming to a stop at the wheel. She looked around desperately, trying to find a way out.

 

“Here!” The kit squirmed in her arms, jumping to the ground. Kagome gave a cry and clutched onto the wheel as he held a small, withered leaf to his forehead. With a loud `pop', he turned into some kind of bird. “Get on!”

 

She scrambled onto his back, ignoring the pleas of the other people on board. Looking back at them as she settled on the bird's back, her eyes softened as she swept her gaze over them. They looked such a ragged and decrepit bunch. Any that managed to get off the ship alive would not live much longer anyway. It was with this thought in mind that Kagome yelled out over the thunder that she was ready, and the kit flew off into the skies.

 

The kit followed the boats, being buffeted around by the wind. A loud crunch sounded behind them, and Kagome whipped her head around to see what had caused the noise. The ship had been tossed into a large, jagged rock, and was now slowly being broken in half. She winced as the two ends of the boat became separated from each other and started to sink at a more rapid pace. That ship had been her home for her entire life; she had never left it.

 

They settled in the trees a way away from where the boats had made land. The kit had literally crash-landed among the treetops, leaving the two of them to tumble unceremoniously and landing in an undignified heap on the ground. Kagome was the first to recover, slowly pushing herself to her feet. She swayed a little as she held a hand to her head, using the other to support herself on a tree. Once the world had righted itself, she scooped up the exhausted kit and began to trudge inland.

 

Kagome panted as she marched on into the night, half afraid that some kind of wild animal was going to attack. She had no idea where the rest of the ship's occupants - those that had made it out alive - were. She didn't even know if this island was inhabited - it could be full of lower-level youkai for all she knew. She managed to keep a firm grip on the kit, and keep herself upright, until she neared the edge of what she realised was a working town.

 

She was knocked around by men and women who were running around, trying to get out of the rain. She trudged up to the shrine, with several miko running around and doing chores, and collapsed.

 

Ummm… kinda anti-climatic, I guess… Again, I don't think I'll be updating for a while. I'm kinda stuck in a writing rut at the moment, and any ideas would be welcomed. So would reviews, so keep `em coming, eh? XD

 

Thanks for reading!