InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Rescue Me ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

Rescue Me

 

Chapter Three

 

Kikyou was hauled up the hill in chains that morning, with all the other crew and prisoners that had made it inland. Demons grumbled around her about the taijiya - whoever they were - being too lazy to lock up their own prisoners. Her ankles were cut into by the shackles, which were almost cutting off the blood from her feet. She could see that they were almost going purple as she trooped along with the others. A young girl from the cells stumbled and fell; she was picked up and thrown over the shoulder non-too-gently of an inuyoukai.

 

The captain had been knocked unconscious upon landing. The taijiya had seen the ship from the shore and had sent the demons out to capture the pirates. One of the hanyou, as she understood from snippets of information that she had overheard, had recognised the ship from when he was previously aboard almost sixteen years ago. Her stomach did flip-flops at the thought that it was the same one that she had known all those years ago; the one who was whipped on his human night.

 

“Oi!” A male voice called out to the demons that were leading them. “Let that one go!” Kikyou looked up to see that the man, who was hooded and cloaked, was pointing at her. Something was barked at him, and he barked something back, before her constraints were loosened and she was brought before the man. Before she could get a word out, a clawed hand appeared from under the cloak and the stranger pulled her along with him into town.

 

“Sir?” She tried as he yanked her along. “Sir!”

 

“Shhh!” He whispered, pulling her into a dark corner, behind a small house. “Listen Kikyou, I'm not supposed to get you outta there. I'm taking you directly to the shrine; you can claim that you're an escaped prisoner there, and they'll clean you up. You can stay there for as long as you like but Bankotsu will be killed. Understand?”

 

Kikyou nodded. “My daughter-”

 

“So I was right, huh? A girl.” He seemed less than pleased. “She survived, then?”

 

“I don't know if she survived the wreck.” His words sunk in. “Wait, Sir! Do I… do I know you?”

 

Another clawed hand pulled back the hood on his face. Kikyou gasped to see bright silver locks glinting in the moonlight between the clouds. “Yeah, you know me Kikyou.”

 

“I'm so glad-”

 

“Never mind that.” Inuyasha snapped. “Get in there!” He shoved her toward the shrine. “And don't come out until its safe!”

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Kagome's head was pounding something fierce. Her chest hurt when she breathed, and the rest of her body ached for no reason at all. She must have taken quite the beating in the fall yesterday.

 

Wait; that wasn't her head pounding! She bolted up from the bed, ignoring the deep aching pain that ran through her, and made her way over to the window. She was on some sort of farm or shrine or something. She could see a large crowd out the window in the distance; the sounds of excitement floated through the air to her ears a he ley on the futon. Crying out as the pain swamped her head, she fell backwards again.

 

“Kagome!” Kikyou came rushing in. “Oh, Kagome, I'm so glad you're alright!”

 

“M-Mother?”

 

“Yes, Kagome…” Kikyou wrapped her arms around her daughter, cradling her against her warm body. “I'm here. We're free, Kagome… we're free.”

 

“Wh-what?”

 

“We washed up on a taijiya island.” Kikyou explained to her daughter, trying to keep her excitement in check. “They're people who slay demons.” She explained to Kagome's confused expression. “I told them who I was, and they brought me in here. You were already being tended to, and I feared you were dead until they told me that you were merely unconscious. You have no idea how relieved I was when I found that you were safe! I thought I'd lost you forever!”

 

“I… I'm sorry to worry you, Mama…”

 

Kikyou's heart swelled. Kagome had not called her `Mama' for almost ten years, when Bankotsu had forbidden her to do so. Hearing it from her now was like a homecoming after a very long and painful journey. Hopefully, after the execution of the pirates, they might be able to have a normal life on this island, free of the terror of pirates. “You don't ever need to apologise, sweetheart. Never.”

 

Kagome wrapped her arms around her mother, scarcely able to believe it. Were they really safe? It certainly seemed so. There were no pirates banging down the door, demanding that they board the ship. So, it appeared that they were also alone. Where was everyone? A sudden thought occurred to her; she felt bad for forgetting it for even a moment.

 

“Mama?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“What happened to the kitsune who was with me?” She asked desperately, looking up into her mother's scarred, smiling face.

 

“He's fine. He was taken in by the miko and is outside playing with the village children.”

 

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. “And what is that pounding?” She snapped, no longer able to drown it out.

 

“Oh, that?” Kikyou frowned darkly. “They've been executing pirates all morning. There were maybe three or four left when I left the town square half an hour ago. Bankotsu will be the last of them.” Kikyou chuckled darkly at Kagome's pleased look. Her daughter was certainly cold when she wanted to be, especially toward her father.

 

“I want to go and see.”

 

Kikyou didn't know if that was such a good idea. All the executions were done by youkai, and some were quite violent and gruesome. She didn't want her baby exposed to that. Sure, she'd seen women get beatings from Bankotsu, and had even walked in on a few rapes over her years - reinforcing her own disgust over the act of joining with a man - but Kikyou didn't want to expose her daughter to such things anymore, now that that part of their life was over.

 

“Please? I need closure.”

 

Ah… now Kikyou new what she wanted. She wanted to be sure that Bankotsu was really gone before she let herself relax. Kikyou sighed; she could understand that. She had been planning to go down herself, after making sure that Kagome was all right. Mentally slapping herself, she helped her daughter up and began to tie the front of her chihaya closed. The miko of the shrine had sensed that both Kikyou and Kagome held spiritual powers - much to Kikyou' surprise - and had offered to train them. Kikyou had accepted their offer, but stated that she would not answer for her daughter. That was Kagome's decision to make.

 

Kagome just let her mother fix her clothing. She'd never seen this kind before, her usual clothing being held up by elastics and straps. She'd never worn traditional clothing before; she didn't even recognise what she and her mother both wore was a uniform for shrine maidens. Kagome had a sneaking suspicion that she would need to learn to get accustomed to them, fast, or she was going to be very uncomfortable. The material itself was softer than she was used to, so it wasn't as if she were itching, but there was so much of the material that she feared it would likely fall off if it were tied the wrong way.

 

Taking her mother's arm, Kagome allowed Kikyou to lead her out of the building and into the courtyard. She glanced around her, seeing the faces of several of her mother's fellow prisoners cheering as the last pirate was brought up. They were all cheering. Several were weeping tears of happiness that they were finally free of him forever; even Kaede was there, quickly making her way over to them. At Kagome's curious gaze, she quickly said “Souta is off playing with the children on the other side of the village.”, knowing that Kagome was worried for her baby brother.

 

With an approving smile and nod, Kagome grasped both the hands of her mother and brother's mother. She watched on, a strange fluttering in her stomach, as the hood was ripped from Bankotsu's head. He sneered at the hand that held the chain that was attached to the shackles on his wrists and feet. Dropping them, the human man vacated the execution stage, leaving the shackled pirate standing proud and tall, shooting his glares around the crowd, finally settling on herself.

 

His sneer becoming more pronounced, he began to take a step in her direction before a clawed hand grabbed him b the throat. Following the arm that the hand was attached to, Kagome's breath was stolen from her lungs. She stood there, spellbound, as the most beautiful youkai - was he even youkai? He seemed more like a Kami to her - she had ever seen pull him up to hi eye level. The youkai had deep, golden eyes that Kagome found herself mesmerised by.

 

Bronzed skin stretched over flexing muscles as the soon topless youkai threw the pirate captain to the ground on the other side of the execution ring. Kagome winced at the horrible scars on his back, reminding her of one of a man that her father had whipped to death when she was thirteen. He had actually survived the whipping itself, but the scars, even when healed over, secreted poison into the bloodstream. He'd even gloated that he'd once used the poison on a hanyou, who would continually stock up the poison in his human blood before it finally killed him.

 

Realisation sunk in. Could it be that this youkai wasn't a youkai, after all? Was he, in fact, the hanyou that her father had boasted using the poison on? Kagome watched the hanyou with increasing interest. Long, wild silver hair billowed around his shoulders and down his back, koinu ears twitching atop his head. Long claws adorned each finger, and the slightest hint of a very sharp-looking fang peeped out as he gave Bankotsu one of the most evil grins that Kagome had ever seen. It even rivalled that of her father's.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Inuyasha growled as he stared at the spineless pirate in front of him. He appeared calm and collected as he glared across the crowd, his scent rapidly turning to anger as he tried to take a step, the shackles on his ankles clinking together. Inuyasha removed the right sleeves of his haori and kosode, not wanting to get human blood on them when his prey spilled his veins and his lifeblood dripped down over his hands.

 

Shooting his bare arm out, he caught the man by the throat, tossing the shirts of his outfit off and to the side. Lifting the man, he threw him across the ring and felt satisfied as he heard at least one bone break. The man just glared at him as he staggered to his feet, his left arm hanging uselessly by his side. Inuyasha's pride soared as he remembered the pain that he'd undergone when he'd broken his arm in human form. He wanted to twist it, to deform it, to make him cry out for mercy.

 

However, the taijiya's orders were clear. A quick, clean death. There would be no torturing Inuyasha's prey. But that didn't matter. As long as Inuyasha was the one to take the cowardly scum's life, he would not complain. In fact, he was looking quite forward to ceasing his pathetic existence once and for all, freeing both himself, and all of the pirate's prisoners, from the memories of being forced to obey him.

 

Rushing forward, Inuyasha's knuckles flexed. Bankotsu tried to lift his good arm in defence of the lethal blow he knew was coming, but was unsuccessful in staving off the hit. The crown gasped in shock as the reality of the man's death sunk in. It was not so much that he was dead; it was how he was killed. Most of the youkai before has merely impaled the pirates through the heart or head, giving them a few seconds to die. But not this youkai.

 

Captain Bankotsu's head looked up from its place on the ground as its body collapsed on the side. Inuyasha washed his hand and arm in the basin of water on the side as he stepped down, leaving the cleanup to the spiritual folk.