InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ Spirit ( Chapter 14 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter 14: Spirit

 

 

`At least this Sesshoumaru doesn't have to occupy his time meditating any longer. It had gotten rather dull at this point anyway,' the youkai lord thought impassively as he sprang over another wayward shard of firewood that had been kicked from its pit, specks of hot embers still glowing on its charred surface. The clay jars and bowls that still lay in his path were no less a hindrance as he glided effortlessly over the fine dirt of the debris strewn camp, his black, leather boots barely grazing the ground with his quick strides.

 

He glanced over to the bare legs of the miko he held securely over his shoulder. He could feel her tense muscles under the firm pressure of his hand and the strength of her grip as she held onto the thick piece of cuirass at his back. His eyes then wandered down to the needle resting in his yellow obi next to his two swords. While he found himself absently admiring her fighting spirit more and more, her skills beyond that left much to be desired. As they raced toward the crowd of cheering men and the screaming hime at its center, the idea of being accidentally stabbed as the miko fumbled to hold on to him was less than pleasing.

 

“Miko, prepare yourself,” he commanded loudly, as he covered the last stretches of earth, the tall mountains of the bandits' coarsely woven pants nearly upon them. He felt her body tense even more at his words and a fine, fleeting smile graced his lips. Gusts of youki swirled around his feet, whipping at his white, hakama pants and after one final burst of speed, he crouched down low, gathering his pooling power into his ready legs. Then he released it. Like a silver shadow, they sailed through the air, scaling the wall of worn clothing and tarnished armor.

 

Lightheaded and dizzy, Kagome felt the air quickly and cruelly pressing out of her chest at the speed, her ribs screaming painfully, demanding to know why they were so abused today. She closed her eyes tightly, needles of pain stinging throughout them as the downward pressure viciously pulled, seeking to rip them from their sockets. Her whole body felt thick and heavy, aching under the wrenching pull. But she held firm, with teeth clenched and nails dug in.

 

The vague, gray blur of the men gradually slowed as they neared the crest of the leap, forming into broad expanses of shoulders and torsos. Gracefully, Sesshoumaru alighted quietly upon the top knot of one of the shorter bandits who was busily shifting from side to side as he tried to peer over his taller compatriots. Kagome gasped heavily, her tousled mop of hair hanging over her head. Weakly, she parted it to look down at the distant ground beneath them.

 

“W-wow,” she muttered between gulps of air.

 

“Hn,” he grunted, his tone unimpressed.

 

She twisted around wearily, seeking the bobbing heads of the bandits and hopefully amongst them, the dark, elaborate bun of the princess. A sigh of despair escaped her lips as she found the sight awaiting her. There had to be two, dozen men at least. She glanced back at the blank expression of the tai youkai.

 

“Thank you,” she said after a pause, her breaths slowing as she finally caught them.

 

“Hn.”

 

“I mean it,” she quickly replied, feeling her eyes well up again. “I let things get out of control and I'm not strong enough to fix it. I'm sorry. I won't involve myself again. It's not fair for me to force others to take care of my problems. Every day, Inuyasha and my friends get stronger and every day I stand on the sidelines more and more, watching them battle, risking their lives. I just never realized how weak I was and—“

 

“Miko,” he interrupted quietly, yet firmly, “Indeed, you are weak and fragile. Your body is inept and frail and your mind is naïve and dull.”

 

“I-I know. That's why—“

 

“However, your spirit is strong. Foolish, but strong. To stand and fight to protect your charge, despite your weakness and to stab your fear, by stabbing that human filth. This all speaks of the power that dwells within you. One can train one's body and one can train one's mind, but a strong spirit is something that one must be born with.”

 

The school girl hung silently over her place on his shoulder, the tai youkai's words slowly trickling through her mind. However, before she could respond, another desperate scream laced with colorful cursing in an angry, feminine voice drew her from her thoughts.

 

“Speaking of charges,” the youkai lord replied, staring into the thick of the swarming bandits in front of him. “We must hurry if we are to save her from any serious harm.”

 

Without waiting for her answer, he leapt off the tightly bound bun of hair onto the next bandit's top knot and then to another, hopping swiftly from head to helmet to head, towards the center. As he neared, the pink-clothed form of the princess was revealed, struggling against her captors. Two held onto each arm, bracing against her surprising strength as she tried to wrench herself away from their grip. A few, unlucky ones had moved back against the pressing crowd of eager spectators, nursing fresh, bite wounds and forming bruises born from her fury. Her kimono was pulled off her shoulders and the bandit leader stood confidently behind her, warily minding her kicking feet. Still holding his hand against his injured eye, he slipped his other free one down the front of her disheveled dress, finding a soft breast.

 

“How dare you!” she screamed furiously at his touch, jerking the men at her arms around with a new found strength. He answered her with a dark chuckle and a hard squeeze, while narrowly dodging her well-aimed kick back at him.

 

“Have you gotten that damn obi off her yet?” he yelled at the man hunched next to him who was busily yanking on one of the loops.

 

“I've never seen anything like it before, boss,” he answered plaintively, rubbing his balding head in frustration. “Whoever tied this, tied it ungodly tight. There's no way I can pick this knot apart.”

 

“Then cut it off, you idiot.”

 

“Ye-Yes, boss.”

 

“B-b-boss!” another voice called from outer fringes of the crowd, his voice shaky and anxious.

 

“What now?!” the leader yelled in exasperation. He was having such a good day. They had managed to rob a well-armed, merchant caravan this morning, stealing everything of value and all without any casualties. Then this afternoon, a stupid, unprotected princess shows up and he was going to find out what it would feel like to have royalty rubbing against him. So, how did he end up half blind surrounded by a bunch of incompetents who can't even get her damn sash off?

 

“It's Jiro, he's…”

 

“Spit it out!”

 

“H-He's dead, boss.”

 

“WHAT?!”

 

“H-His throat's been cut.”

 

“Where's the little bastard he was holding?!” he screamed, releasing his hand from the princess' bosom.

 

“My name's Issunboshi,” a thin voice replied coolly in his ear. Then the world went red as the needle's point sought his only, good eye. Stumbling into the men at his back, he howled in pain, his fingers scrambling at his face and neck searching urgently for his tiny tormentor.

 

Seeing the new coating of blood streaming down their leader's face, several bandits hurried forward, ripping at his clothes, seeking the little boy hidden in the folds. Spying their quarry up at the nape of the under coat, they swooped in only to find their questing fingers burnt away from their hands, blood oozing from the blackened stumps.

 

“Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama!” Kagome sang out to the youkai lord as he sprang towards the bandits, sending another fiery blast from Tokijin at one of the men's chests to finish him off as the others screamed in agony at the unexpected assault.

 

“Show your strength of spirit. Protect her,” he responded after a slight nod, then turned to pursue the fleeing hunters now turned prey. Kagome grinned after him, watching as he sprang away, unleashing another torrent of flame. She turned on her heel, biting at her lip and her eyes brimming with determination. She would protect her. She would grow stronger.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Chaos churned around the tai youkai, as the panicky bandits tumbled into each other, mauling one another with their own blades and feet as they struggled to escape from their unseen attacker. Bounding from shoulder to shoulder, he sliced their throats with his sword, necks spurting red in his wake. He frowned at the growing mass of bodies falling and gurgling behind him. Humans such as these deserved to be disintegrated, their filth purged from the earth they soil with their blood. He sighed. His sword though could only burn away so much.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Darting in and out of the leader's clothing and armor, Kagome struck at his flesh, driving her needle deep. He yelled in pain with each stab, frantically feeling for her with his claw-like fingers only to find his own torn, bare skin. Stepping back suddenly from another attack, his unsteady feet found the prone bodies of his fallen men. Tumbling over them, the jarring movement tore away at the school girl's grip, sending her through the air and towards the rapidly closing ground below.

 

“Inuyasha!” she screamed, closing her eyes to the unfriendly fate racing towards her. That was it. She was going to die. No old age for her. No lying in her death bed saying goodbye to her children and grandchildren. No looking back on her long, accomplished life. No slipping away into one, last peaceful slumber. Just a swift splat on the ground in a fairy tale, surrounded by the dead bodies of bandits, a crazy princess and a way too serious youkai lord.

 

“Miko?”

 

“Eh?”

 

“Are you hurt?”

 

“Eh?!”

 

A soft sigh.

 

“Open your eyes, miko.”

 

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, revealing a pair of arms and legs dangling beneath her and the blood splattered ground a few inches beyond. She pulled a hand up to her face, waving it gently until it gradually dawned on her that it was in fact, hers. So, she wasn't dead?

 

“I'm alive?”

 

“Of course.”

 

She craned her neck up to see the backlit face of the youkai lord above her, his silver hair and citrine eyes glowing bright gold in the warm glow of the setting sun. She stared for a while, mesmerized at the beauty as the breeze picked a few of his locks, fluttering them like ribbons in the air.

 

“Miko?” he asked again, lowering a fine brow in concern.

 

“Eh? I'm fine. I'm fine,” she mumbled quickly, searching for an excuse to look away. “Wait, where's that bandit? And where's the princess?”

 

“Over there,” he replied nonchalantly, nodding up to the left. Hearing the screams and cursing, that a moment ago she had been deaf to, she looked up to find the hime standing proudly over the crawling form of the bandit leader. Struggling to protect himself from the constant barrage of kicks, he lay huddled with his arms over his head pathetically.

 

“Get him, hime!” Kagome yelled, holding her fist up in the air. She smiled appreciatively as the princess landed a solid kick into his side, eliciting a groan from his lips. She wasn't one to condone violence, but today was not a normal day by any means. “Let's go over there, Sesshoumaru-sama.”

 

“Very well,” he spoke with another sigh, tightening his grip on his passenger, realizing in that moment where in fact he had caught her. Kagome felt the clawed hand shift against her chest. Slowly, she looked over to her waist, her eyes following the hard elbow, then the thick muscular forearm leading under her stomach and finally the striped wrist and hand cupped ever so perfectly over her right breast.

 

“Pervert,” she screamed, struggling against the vice of his arm. “I can't believe you did that! Let me go!” With a shrug, he released his hand from her body, along with his arm, letting the school girl fall the remaining space to the soft earth below.

 

Wincing from the unexpected blow, she stood up, brushing the dust and frowning at the smear of blood that now cut across her white, sailor top. She opened her mouth to complain about inu youkai rudeness and to ask if it was hereditary, when she noticed that the air above her was lacking in an inu youkai.

 

“Typical,” she muttered, looking one last time in disgust at her shirt, before running over to the satisfied princess who had taken to throwing pottery she found strewn around the camp at her one time captor.

 

“Hime! Hime!”

 

“Yes, Issun,” the princess replied pleasantly, thick locks of her once perfectly bound hair hanging down elegantly around her face.

 

“Umm… I-I'm sorry.”

 

“For what?” she responded absently as she lobbed a tea cup at the bandit's head, fracturing it with a loud crack as it struck true to its mark.

 

“I didn't protect you as well as I should have.”

 

“Issun, you are the size of my finger, yet you fought and blinded a warrior many times your size. I believe you did a job worthy of your name.”

 

“B-but, you were…”

 

“Do not worry yourself. To be royalty is to be resilient. He is paying for his crime, I assure you. Sake jugs look particularly painful,” she continued, her voice cheerful, “Wait here, you vile oaf. I am not finished with you.”

 

“Wait, don't,” he begged feebly.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Take this,” he motioned into his armor, slipping a hand in and retrieving an ornately decorated hammer, “Just don't throw anymore pots at me, please.”

 

“Perhaps,” the hime paused thoughtfully and then let the sake jug she had just picked up fly, knocking the poor bandit out. “A jug ought to be permissible then.”

 

“The mallet,” Kagome exclaimed, watching the hammer fall from his hand to the ground.

 

“Indeed,” the princess said with a frown and walked over to the unconscious man, picking up the gilded tool. Ivory and gold, it glinted in the orange light, the image of the sun in relief on its surface.

 

“A mallet grants hope,” the school girl mumbled the last line of the poem, “We're near the end.”

 

“So it seems,” she replied with a smile, admiring the hammer and then looked down at the tiny figure at her feet. “Hold still for me, gift of Amaterasu.”

 

“Eh?” Kagome uttered as the hime knelt gently next to her with the hammer in hand. Then with a swift movement, she swung the mallet down, lightly touching the crown of the school girl's head. Gold dust swirled and glittered around Kagome as a gentle glow surrounded her body. She felt light and airy and watched giddily as the world slowly shrank away. Another strike found her head and the glow renewed itself as the ground receded away yet again.

 

“One last time,” the princess said, now standing over the waist high person in front of her. The final strike gave off one last burst of radiance, which moved like a wave through the forest, illuminating it briefly in rich, amber light as it went. “Issun?”

 

Kagome looked across into the brown eyes of the princess and smiled. She felt strange and watched the glow on her skin slowly fade into the honey of the natural sunlight filtering through the trees.

 

“Thank you, hime,” she said finally, her smile growing into a grin.

 

“No, I must thank you.”

 

With that, the princess leaned in, her lips quickly seizing the school girl's before she could react. Kagome flushed red; her eyes wide open in shock. A moment passed and the hime leaned back, satisfied with the surprise she had painted so effectively on the face before her.

 

“As for your actions earlier at the castle,” the hime went on proudly, “I have this for you.” A sound smack landed against Kagome's cheek, leaving a faint, red mark, jarring her only further into the realm of disbelief she was currently occupying. “Really, Issun, wandering through my cleavage while helping me dress. Such improperness. The least you could do is to wait until we've been married or at least engaged. Come let us go back to the castle and inform my father of out success and our impending betrothal.”

 

She paused briefly to kick the bandit one last time and then vanished into the air leaving behind the perplexed school girl rubbing her sore cheek. The idea of what it must be like to be Miroku flitted through Kagome's mind.

 

“Miko,” a deep, but thin voice called to her. She looked around in confusion, to find the tiny, silver form of the youkai lord perched upon her shoulder expectantly.

 

“You're still small?” He shrugged nonchalantly and looked down at her distant, brown loafers.

 

“The mallet.”

 

“The mallet? Oh!” She crouched down, grasping the hammer resting at her feet. In a flash of blue sparks, it transformed into a seal of ivory that glowed gold in her hands. Engraved on its smooth surface, the rectangular kanji for sun gleamed. Smiling, she flipped it over to the long awaited poetry.

 

“Dog white as snow honors love. Envy black as ash steals all,” Sesshoumaru spoke slowly, reading each character carefully.

 

“From tree grinds lost life. Broken to ash it returns. Dust renews Earth's grace.”

 

“Dying beauty blooms once more. A stained heart may not follow.”

 

“A lord judges all. Kindness honors the faithful. Evil honors none.”

 

The final word spoken, the seal burst into a shower of sparkling dust. Ahead in the gap of a tent door, radiated the light of midday, stark against the last vestige of sunlight waning around them.

 

“Shall we?” Kagome spoke with a smile, eyeing the youkai lord settled peacefully on her shoulder. A long pause passed emptily. “Sesshoumaru-sama?”

 

“Hm?” he murmured absently, his mind snared in deep thought.

 

“What is it?”

 

“Nothing of importance,” he replied, brushing away the strange feeling of dread taking hold in his stomach. He wasn't used to such feelings and it only served to make him even more uneasy than it should have. After all, it couldn't be that story. These were fairy tales.

 

Kagome frowned. The idea of flicking him off her shoulder for dismissing her concern so easily briefly floated through her mind, only to be swiftly squelched by the likelihood of him not actually flying off and her receiving a broken finger for her efforts.

 

“Proceed, miko,” he ordered, with a subtle measure of impatience.

 

She stared at him one last time and then through the tent she stepped.

 

A/N: The end of Issunboshi (finally!) By the way, since several people have asked. The fairy tales I'm writing of are actual Japanese stories. They all go a little differently than what I portray and so I encourage everyone to read the real ones. Anyways, onward to the third story!