InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strange Wishes ❯ Dog Lord ( Chapter 4 )

The gang made good time with their traveling. Having left before dawn and taking advantage of InuYasha and Kirara’s speed they had already put a fair distance between themselves and Kaede’s village, yet Kagome still had not sensed another jewel shard.

Sango and Miroku were riding peacefully together on the fire-cat’s back, but only because InuYasha had thrown an unholy fit when Sango had pushed him off and made him walk for a while. It greatly downsized their progress and InuYasha wouldn’t have it, so in his normal brusque manner he had forced them to ride Kirara together with Shippou.

“We can’t have those two hindering us just because they won’t behave like adults,” InuYasha told Kagome when they stopped for camp, loud enough for the subjects of his comment to hear.

InuYasha hadn’t let Kagome sleep during the five hours of traveling, for she was the only one who could sense the shards. When they finally broke camp however, Kagome and Shippou had curled up in her sleeping bag with the hanyou’s blessing as the other three made breakfast.

The sun had completely risen when they’d stopped, and it hadn’t moved much when Kagome awoke to the smell of meat cooking. She did a double take when she saw that both the amount of food and the quality were not quite up to par, and she looked askance at InuYasha, typically the group’s food-gatherer, who was sitting not far away from her.

All InuYasha did was shift his eyes over to where Miroku was sitting, and Kagome understood. Was this another trial of worth?

Kagome nudged Shippou awake as Miroku pulled the food away from where it was roasting on the fire and prepared to serve it. The kit blinked sleepily at the breakfast catch and arched an eyebrow.

“Um...how are all of us going to share that?”

Miroku sighed, handing a small fish to Shippou, “I am prepared to go without. This is all I could find.”

Kagome looked to Sango and noted that she was pinning the Houshi with an almost hawk-like stare, as if waiting for the exact moment when he slipped up to go in for the kill. Miroku handed Kagome some meat, offered some to InuYasha but he refused, then turned to Sango. The taijiya accepted her helping without making eye contact.

Kagome decided to remember Sango’s herb potion at that moment. Digging it along with a bottle of water out of her knapsack, she scooted over to Sango.

“Here--”

She started at an angry screech from Shippou, and she turned to see InuYasha bang him on the head and yank his breakfast from his tiny claws.

“Get your own!” Shippou wailed, pulling a leaf from his coat.

The minute InuYasha spotted it his eyes widened in fear, and he backed away hurriedly--right into Sango.

The herb potion fell to the dirt with a crack of the wooden container and a spray of sodden brew.

“InuYasha!” Kagome scolded, about to dish out a fresh batch of Osuwaris, but Sango’s sigh distracted her.

“Kagome, do you know how to make more of this brew?” The taijiya questioned.

Kagome nodded, “I think so.”

Sango stood, “Get up, Houshi-sama. It’s time to prove your worth.”

Miroku complied immediately, coming to the slayer’s side like her faithful hound.

Kagome made to join them, “I’ll come and help you find--”

“Not necessary, Kagome.” The miko froze when Sango winked at her, “Thank you, but Houshi-sama, Shippou, and I will be able to find the herbs easily enough.”

Sango looked in the kitsune’s direction. Shippou yanked his food from InuYasha’s limp hand and stuffed it into his mouth whole before hopping after the taijiya and the monk toward the nearby forest.

Kagome clenched her fist, Sango...you’re really serious about this plan aren’t you? I wonder if InuYasha is getting wise yet.

Kagome slanted a glance at the hanyou in question. He was still gaping after the demon-slayer, but soon enough he felt her stare and huffed, stuffing his hands into the capacious sleeves of his haori. He had a look on his face that suggested he still expected to get his ‘Osuwari’. Kagome heaved a sigh.

What am I going to do with my friends?

InuYasha looked at her tentatively, and she wondered what he was thinking. She was suddenly reminded of the night before, when she had nearly been kidnapped.

“Um,” She began, “InuYasha--thank you.”

“For what?” He asked, only half-irritably.

“Saving me from the thieves.”

InuYasha growled, “Those bastards didn’t know who they were messin’ with.”

Kagome smiled softly, He must spend half his time saving me.

“I wonder what they meant by ‘Great Demon’,” She spoke her thoughts aloud. “It couldn’t be Naraku, could it?”

InuYasha’s eyes glinted with malice that had fermented over the time spent trying to kill their most devastating and cunning foe, “We’ve traveled pretty far south without a sign of a single jewel shard or anything unusual, but I wouldn’t put it past that bastard to pull a trick like this.”

Kagome knew if their was any means of divining the plans Naraku had in store for them, it was to always expect a trap, and it had been far too long for her taste since they’d last tangled with the evil hanyou or one of his minions.

“We’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled,” She looked down at her uneaten food, then at InuYasha’s empty hands. “Here,” She offered it to him. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

He signaled to Kirara, “Give it to her. She needs it more than I do.”

Kagome did as instructed and delivered the food to the fire-cat, who mewled her gratitude before tearing into the meat. Kagome walked back over to sit by InuYasha, placing herself closer to him than before.

Is this was I want? Kagome thought vaguely, To be alone with him? To be close to him?

“Kagome.”

“Hmm?”

InuYasha shifted to face her, “So...what exactly is this ‘dance’ thing I’m supposed to go to?”

The miko wondered what answer would sound best, and she floundered for a second before stuttering out, “Uh--it’s a thing in my time...like a party, where--um--friends go to have fun together and listen to music and--”

“Music? You mean that loud stuff you play with those shiny circles?” He insinuated, ears twitching.

She sweatdropped, “Yeah.”

He grunted, “So--we’ll return to the village for the new moon.”

She picked up on the slight twinge of fear in his voice, hard as he tried to disguise it.

Kagome placed a comforting hand on his arm, “If you don’t want to go to the dance on your human night I won’t mind--”

“No Kagome,” He said flatly, though he looked sorely tempted. “I made a promise to you and my word is something I keep.”

She smiled, more than familiar with his proclivity to keep his promises, “You know...you don’t have to keep a promise if it hurts you.”

He didn’t pick up her ulterior meaning, “Don’t be stupid. I’m going and that’s final.”

InuYasha..., “Okay.”

In the time it took for the other members of their group to return Kagome actually enjoyed being alone with InuYasha. It reminded her of when their journey first began and it was just them searching for the shards, only InuYasha was a lot more sociable nowadays. Her friends back home would’ve thought it strange that her soul mate was a hanyou from five hundred years in the past. She however, felt it was the most wonderful and natural thing in the universe, and also that she couldn’t live if she were ever without his dour yet gentle presence.

InuYasha got a tad ruffled later on when their departure was delayed by Kagome having to make Sango’s potion. It did turn out alright, but it put them on the road an hour later than the inuhanyou would have liked. He was soothed however, as he and Kagome lightly conversed as he carried her southward after Kirara and the others. Even after Miroku’s displays of chivalry that morning Sango still had not deemed him worthy, for she was a frosty as ever toward the monk, whose face was only beginning to heal (with a bit of help from Kagome’s modern medicine).

Their traveling techniques were as efficient as usual, and before they knew it they were passing above the acreage of the vast and diverse southern lands. Later that morning the clear blue sky began to cloud over and the wind picked up, ominous gray thunderheads grazing from plot to unquenched plot of land ambiguously.

InuYasha stopped abruptly in the middle of tearing down a road, the dust that swirled around his feet still dry for the lack of rain, and Kagome felt the muscles of his shoulders tense beneath her hands as the wind whipped his hair back into her face, “What is it?”

The hanyou’s eyes opened wide, “It smells like--”

Before InuYasha could end his sentence a shrill cry of pain ripped through the air, pulling their attentions to the tall grasses to their left just as Kirara touched down beside them. Not one to spare time for their companions however, InuYasha sped off toward the source of the noise with Kagome still clinging to his back. The high grass sluiced past his legs until they come upon a small boy lying face down in the dirt, his foot caught in a hole dug by some manner of animal.

“It’s a kid,” Kagome stated blankly. The youngster, who looked to be about ten, wore a dark blue kimono and had his hair tied back in a thick black poof at his nape that hung flippantly past his shoulders.

InuYasha was the first to spring into action. He let Kagome down from his back and jumped to the little boy’s side, turning him over after carefully lifting his foot from the hole. He groaned weakly as InuYasha sat him up, his eyes gradually focusing on the face of the hanyou hovering above him.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!” He screamed in fear, making InuYasha drop him in shock and Kagome back up strait into Miroku, who in turn was thrown back into Sango.

“What--?” The monk started, but got no further as the boy scrambled away in terror.

“The evil dog lord has returned! I must warn the village!” He shouted as he ran in the direction of his supposed village, only to fall again after three steps, “OW!”

“Oh no,” Kagome approached him with her backpack, ignoring the horrified stare he was giving her as he tried to push himself away. “You shouldn’t run. I think you’re ankle might be broken.”

“St--Stay away from me!” He shouted at her shakily, but angrily.

Kagome ignored his warning, kneeling down beside the boy as Miroku came up beside her to soothe him.

“You have nothing to fear from me and my companions. Please, let Kagome see to your wounds. She is an excellent healer.”

The calm of Miroku’s voice and the fact that he was a holy man and not a hanyou nor a strangely dressed girl allayed the boy’s apprehension a bit, and Kagome happily opened her first aid kit as she adjusted his ankle into a better position.

“Now, where does it hurt?”

The boy blinked at the first aid kit, his eyes the same dark blue as his kimono, and pointed to his right ankle.

The others watched in meditative silence as Kagome saw to the boy’s grievances, occasionally exchanging glances full of questions waiting to be asked to this dog-fearing village boy. InuYasha kept his place a stone’s throw from the lad, looking indignantly at him one minute, then staring at him in seemingly deep thought the next.

“There!” Kagome announced cheerily as she finished splinting his ankle. “You’re good to go now.”

The boy gazed upon her with wonder, his mouth slightly agape as the last traces of nervousness he had evinced at their meeting left him.

Miroku took it upon himself to question the boy, “If you don’t mind me asking, why did you scream when you saw InuYasha?”

The boy glanced over at the hanyou, his hands fidgeting, “I’m sorry. I thought he was the same inuyoukai that attacked my village two days ago.”

Silence pervaded their solitary glade as all eyes but Kagome’s turned to see the pensively furrowed brow the hanyou wore. The miko however, kept her sights on the boy, “An inuyoukai? He resembled InuYasha?”

The boy nodded, glancing once again at the silver-haired half-demon before going into his tale, “Yes, but I didn’t get a very good look at him. He brought with him a giant youkai and set it loose in our village. It destroyed many of our huts and killed some people.”

“Is that why you’ve fled your village?” Sango asked leadingly.

The boy’s tone became slightly defensive, “No, I was playing with--” He stopped, suddenly petrified, “Futoshi! Oh no! I lost him!”

“Who is Futoshi?” Kagome knew she had to calm the boy down lest he injure himself further. Luckily, the timely arrival of Shippou assuaged the boy’s anxiety.

“Is this him?”

They all turned to the little kit as he stepped out of the brush carrying a lizard in his arms, his rather overweight green body secured by a makeshift leash.

“Futoshi!” The boy cried, accepting his pet from the fox-demon. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing,” The kitsune answered loftily, puffing his chest out.

The boy didn’t seem to fear Shippou for being a youkai, and he looked around at them with an apologetic smile on his face, “Please forgive me for earlier--”

“It’s fine,” Kagome waved him off, “Now, we’ll help you get back to your village.”

“What? Why?” InuYasha’s voice boomed, as if making up for the time he had kept silent, “There’s no reason to delay if you don’t sense a shard--do you sense a shard?”

Kagome frowned, “InuYasha, you heard what happened! Their village was attacked and their homes destroyed. We can’t just pass them by without offering our help.”

“Besides,” Miroku interjected with sobriety, “I don’t know about all of you, but I would like to find out more about this inuyoukai if he is, as I suspect, your half-brother.” Everyone looked at InuYasha to gauge his reaction.

Sesshoumaru? Kagome thought as she took in InuYasha’s scowling face. “Well, it’s not like there are a lot of inuyoukai that look like InuYasha running around.

Kagome gasped as the memory of the day at the cemetery returned to her. She had forgotten all about the youkai’s tombstone, casting it off as unimportant in the wake of Sango’s pregnancy and asking InuYasha to the dance, but now....

Everyone watched leerily as InuYasha clenched his fist and growled, then resigned himself to his better half, “Keh! I suppose it’s no use arguing!”

“My name’s Jinsei,” The boy told them as he allowed Futoshi to scamper ahead of them on the leash. After a few minutes of walking down the dirt path with Kagome’s help he had grown more sure of himself, and was now limping along on his own, leading them to his village at a trudge.

“Well Jinsei, I’m Kagome.” She pointed out her friends, “This is InuYasha, Miroku, Shippou, Sango, and Kirara.”

“Thank you all for helping me and Futoshi,” Jinsei said happily.

“Is your village near?” Sango queried.

“It’s not far. Beyond this next ridge,” He answered, tugging on Futoshi’s leash when the lizard strayed too far.

Kagome kept a steady pace as they walked up the incline. When she wasn’t looking over at the incensed hanyou she was wondering about Sesshoumaru being alive in the Sengoku Jidai, but at the same time six feet under in her time.

The sky was looking ever the more menacing and the wind becoming hard to ignore. InuYasha tilted his nose skyward, a sour expression on his face as he sniffed.

“It’ll be storming by nightfall. We’ll have to work fast if we want to give these people shelter before the rain starts pouring.”

Kagome turned to speak to him, “InuYasha, back there on the road--was it Sesshoumaru’s scent you picked up?”

Kagome could feel the eyes of the others on them as InuYasha nodded, “But it wasn’t just him. He had the human girl Rin with him and that foot-licking toad, Jaken. Then there’s the stench of a dead youkai that I can smell worse than ever from here.”

Sango pulled up behind the hanyou, “Are you saying Sesshoumaru was the inuyoukai who ordered the demon to attack Jinsei’s village?”

“I don’t see who else it could be.”

Miroku’s staff jangled as he plodded beside them, Shippou on his shoulder, “Hopefully the villagers will be able to elaborate on exactly what transpired two days ago.”

A small cluster of huts came into view not five minutes later. From the acme of the gentle slope that led down to the rice fields and eventually the village itself, the gang could see the extent of the damage that had been done. Many huts had been reduced to rubble and splinters, and the many rice patties had been smooshed in by something that seemed to have giant, hoof-like feet trampling the marshy fields. In the village’s center, what looked to be a large inn had been practically cleaved in two.

When they arrived at the bottom of the slope they had to cover their ears when someone howled, “JINSEIIIIII!”

An ancient woman was galloping toward them as fast as her spindly legs would carry her. Her arm was bound in cloth as if it had been injured. By the time she had stopped in front of Jinsei she was panting for breath, “What do you think you’re doing, sneaking away from the chores assigned to you--again?”

“Excuse me, senpai.” Miroku swaggered forward, “We have heard of your village’s misfortune and my friends and I have come to offer--”

“BEAST!” The woman caterwauled, throwing a shriveled finger out at InuYasha. “Dirty hanyou! Leave this village!”

“Grandma!” Jinsei yelled, dragging her arm back to her side, “You don’t understand--they aren’t bad guys.”

“Hold your tongue whelp! You dare to justify bringing demons to our village?”

Kagome and the others looked around anxiously as a crowd of bedraggled villagers began to gather. InuYasha however, was watching the proceedings with apparent apathy.

“Grandma, their demons rescued me and found Futoshi.” He continued, sticking out his ankle, “Kagome even bandaged my wound. Please Grandma, they mean us no harm. They want to help repair our houses.”

After hearing her grandson’s explanation the elder turned suspicious eyes on each of them in seriatim. Her wrinkles slowly began to smooth, though some of the villagers surrounding them sustained their disdainful visages.

“You saved my Jinsei?” She asked InuYasha levelly.

He gave a curt nod. Something seemed to pass between the elder and the hanyou in the rigid stare that persisted for several seconds before the old woman relaxed.

“Very well. We will accept your help.”   - * - * - * -

“Oh my, you’ve got some nasty scrapes. This may sting a bit,” Kagome apprised in a soothing voice as she applied the herb to the young man’s chest.

As promised, the group had gotten to work on fixing the village strait away. It had been thought that Kagome’s skills would be better put to use if she tend to the wounded; the village healer was one among those who had died in the attack two days prior, and the villagers had salvaged what they could from her hut to treat their wounds with their limited medical knowledge. Kagome now sat just outside Jinsei’s still-standing hut, doctoring anyone who came forward. After two years of running around in the feudal era, coming prepared with a village’s worth of medical supplies had become an axiom, so there was plenty to go around. Her friends were out working on the huts. Even Shippou was helping, and he had gone out with the village boys to gather much needed timber.

Kagome grimaced as the next person in line sat down before her. The girl was no more than six years old, and the burns that marred the right half of her face had not healed well at all. Kagome’s hands shook with sympathy and anger as she applied her modern antiseptic (which she was infinitely grateful for at times like this) to the child’s injuries.

Sesshoumaru...if you did this you don’t deserve your father’s fang.

“I got it!”

Kagome swiveled her head around when she heard InuYasha’s voice. Her eyes met a silver-haired hanyou in his vanilla undershirt hauling a cedar the length of a dozen men over his shoulder, the other village men trailing along behind him carrying smaller logs among each other. Kagome felt an unequivocally familiar pang jolt through her chest like electricity. Her throat constricted.

Somewhere in the haze of her mind she knew she must’ve been staring, but she couldn’t help it. InuYasha stepped gracefully over to the man-made structure as if the tree riding on his arm were one of Shippou’s illusions, visible but not really there. When he set it down there was a great crash that shook the earth below her, then the sound of splitting wood as he drew his merciless talons across the log. Kagome’s breath caught as she watched, transfixed, the cedar falling apart in perfectly cut pieces.

She froze when his eyes caught hers. It was like he’d felt the burn of her gaze on him, and she was afraid she’d never be able to look away--

“Lady?”

“Huh? Yes?” Kagome jumped and turned to face the young girl she had been tending to.

“Am I healed?”

Kagome glanced over to see Jinsei’s grandmother looking intently at her, and felt her blush begin.

She saw me staring at him like a love struck little girl.

“Yes, you’re all set,” Kagome dismissed her distractedly, and the girl smiled from beneath the bandage that covered half of her face before scampering off.

Jinsei’s grandmother was the next to seek her medical skills. She had waited for all of the other wounded to receive treatment before sitting down in front of Kagome herself, but the old woman’s selflessness didn’t make her forget how she had yelled at InuYasha just because he was a half demon, even if her hostility could be ascribed to Sesshoumaru’s attack mere days ago.

As Kagome looked at Jinsei’s grandmother the elder’s gaze shifted to someone coming up on Kagome’s left.

“Things are certainly going along more swiftly with your help.”

Kagome turned to see InuYasha casually plop down next to her.

“Yeah. We thought we’d get the inn fixed first so everyone will have shelter if the storm comes early,” He explained, glancing at Kagome, who did her best to cover the rising redness in her cheeks when she remembered he’d caught her staring.

InuYasha may put on airs, but he’s really a nice guy at heart, Kagome thought as he accepted a bowl of soup from one of the village women.

After setting her own food at her side Kagome gently unwrapped the elder’s bloodstained arm brace. She gasped as the cloth fell away, revealing several gashes. The cuts were so deep that her bone was visible even after two days of healing.

“What happened?” She asked quietly.

The elder winced as Kagome cleaned her wounds, “It was not one of the demons who injured me, but their human girl.”

Both Kagome and InuYasha stopped what they were doing at her words. The miko found voice enough to articulate the first word that had come to mind, “Rin?”

“I know not her name, but she was a young thing of eleven, maybe twelve, but wielded her blades against ten of our men at once.”

“So,” InuYasha eyed her grimly, “Are you gonna tell us what happened two days ago or not, old woman?”

The elder seemed to size them up as Kagome prepared to stitch up her wounds, “There’s not much to tell.”

“Good, ‘cause I don’t want your life story.”

She ignored him, beginning the story. “It all happen very suddenly. Rumors of unrest with the Taiyoukai of the south and of villages being attacked had been flying about the village when the inuyoukai came upon us. He was similar to you in semblance,” She indicated InuYasha, “Only he had not your ears and wore a cape of white fur--”

“And he was missing an arm?” Kagome inquired pointedly.

“If he was, I noticed not. Anyhow, he brought a great horned demon to terrorize our village. He himself only attacked when some of the men tried to bring him down, and otherwise simply watched as his beast destroyed our homes and harvest.”

“Then how did you get these wounds?” Kagome asked as she wrapped them.

“The inuyoukai’s human ward and green demon saw fit to prevent the villagers from reaching their master. The girl, Rin, seemed to think that by beating us back with her weapons she was actually granting us mercy from the full wrath of her lord.”

How right she was! I’d rather get stabbed in the arm by Rin than tangle with Sesshoumaru any day.

The elder continued, “The horned monster he set loose was the only thing that did any real damage or actually played predator, but in the end it was the inuyoukai lord himself that subdued the monster.”

Sesshoumaru killed...? Kagome struggled to wrap her mind around what had happened.

“And after that he just left?” InuYasha’s tone was incredulous.

“Yes. He took his toad vassal and human child away with him, and not a sign has been seen of them since.”

Sesshoumaru didn’t die? Well of course not, he’s strong but--in my time Sesshoumaru is dead! The epitaph even said that he’d died early sixteenth century--five-hundred years ago in the Sengoku Jidai! Maybe he died on the way home....

Kagome’s brain was befuddled as she finished with the old woman’s wounds and received a thank you in return. Kagome was starting to feel more positive about the elder; not many people would up and place their trust in a demon, even if he’d saved ten of their grandsons.

She followed after InuYasha to help with repairing the damage dealt by who they now knew was most assuredly Sesshoumaru. Sango, Miroku, and Shippou were just as clueless as the rest of them regarding Sesshoumaru’s motives when they briefed them on what they had learned from Jinsei’s grandmother, but they all ventured a guess that it had something to do with Naraku. Everything fishy always seemed to have roots back to him.

Over the next few hours Kagome kept a running battle with herself over whether or not to tell InuYasha (or anyone for that matter) about the gravestone in her time. As soon as she started she would stop with a ‘never mind’ or ‘I forgot what I was thinking’. The hanyou may have thought her mentally ill, but her gut was telling her she shouldn’t mention what she’d seen in the future to him.

She was helping Sango transport a log when Shippou hailed her, “Kagome!”

“Shippou! How’s it going?” She asked as he lit onto the log she was assisting Sango in the carrying of.

“It’s fun. I’m helping the village kids a lot...but Kagome, you should see the bonfire the villagers built for getting rid of the body of the youkai Sesshoumaru sicked on them! The bones that are left on the wood are huge!”

“Wait Shippou--why aren’t you working right now?” Sango quirked a brow at the kitsune.

At that very moment none other than Jinsei arrived beside them, looking up at Shippou beadily, “Hey! That was a neat trick you showed me to get out of chores! They won’t notice we’re gone for another hour now.”

As InuYasha and Miroku helped with resurrecting new huts, Kagome and Sango spent the remainder of the time aiding the women in the resewing the of rice fields as Shippou and Jinsei goofed off. When that undertaking was completed and they returned to eat dinner in the village it was late in the afternoon. The winds had died down some, but the sky was as ominous as ever it had been.

“As payment for saving my grandson and helping our village, I insist that you stay the night in the shelter of our inn,” The grandmother of Jinsei said, the villagers around her nodding.

“No,” InuYasha told them simply.

“But the storm approaches--”

“We have a couple of hours yet. Besides, we need to track down that demon that attacked your village.”

“Do you think Sesshoumaru is the great demon the thieves were talking about?” Sango questioned them from Kirara’s back. After bidding Jinsei a final farewell they had taken to the skies, and were now heading further south, the cardinal direction in which the most prevalent of rumors the villagers had heard had come from.

“Keh. If he is then he’s got something to do with a jewel shard.”

They were far from Jinsei’s village and passing over dense forest by sunset. The heavens were painted with fiery colors in the crevasses between thunder clouds, and that was when the gang spied a funnel of smoke originating from what appeared to be a small town.

Kagome recognized the familiar energy creeping into her, “There’s a shard of the jewel down there.”

InuYasha growled, “I smell blood.”