InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tale of the Twins ❯ Chapter Twenty: Paths ( Chapter 20 )

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

Sorry this one took so long, but I've been quite busy between work, school, and handling a family crisis, so forgive me!

Chapter Twenty

Paths

Overall, their time on the ship was so dull it was not worth mentioning, aside from one incident.

Shuarra Meitsuki was bored. A bored Shuarra usually led to trouble. Today, she discovered that at the bottom of the ship, the crew were mopping, but not with water and soap; with tar. When she asked, they told her that it keeps it from leaking. Unbeknownst to them, Shuarra took a scoop of their tar and wandered away, giggling. She was holding it in a tin cup, which she planned to dispose of once her malicious deed was committed.

You see, Kuraimaru had pushed her out of their room earlier that day and clipped her nose with the door, and she was still a bit angry about that. Kuraimaru had not yet been forced to apologize by Sesshoumaru. Said youkai lord was currently asleep and Rin did not want to wake him. The reason that he was still asleep even at mid-morning was something that Shuarra Meitsuki's juvenile mind could not (and should not) fathom. She knew that Kuraimaru was quite particular about his hair for a boy. It was also rather long—a couple centimeters past his shoulders, to be exact. She couldn't beat him in a fist fight, and she also couldn't say anything to him that would be insulting, because he never really took offense to anything. She had to go for his ego—damage his pride a bit. And the easiest way to do that would be to do something to his hair.

Shuarra Meitsuki couldn't help but giggle again at the mere thought of him screaming and panicking about his hair. He would be so mad!

She wondered what tar would do to hair. It smelled awful.

She poked her head inside the room she shared with her twin. He was inside, studying Italian. Rin wasn't there—which was good.

He sniffed the air a bit. “What's that?”

She had kept her hand behind her back. “Oh, they're mopping the floor with this sticky black stuff,” she answered.

He sniffed again. “That's tar. Is it outside the door?”

“No, on the bottom deck.”

“It smells closer.” He hadn't even looked up from the scroll yet, so he was obviously not too concerned, only slightly suspicious.

“The smell is really strong. I can even smell it from here. You just had the door closed, Kurai-kun.”

“Maybe.”

She shut the door and hopped over to him. Before he knew what she was doing, she had already grabbed a chunk of his hair and dipped it in the tar. Kuraimaru froze.

Shuarra Meitsuki frowned. That was not what she was expecting. Then she grinned, as his reactions came to full boil. His eyes widened. A look of horror flashed across his childish features. He slowly sat up, staring straight forward for a moment. His eyes shifted to the side of his head that was defiled with tar. Slowly, he moved his arm, lifting the hair away from his clothing. He looked at it. For a moment, he didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't blink.

Then he screamed. It sounded half-howl and half-scream, actually. Either way, it was like nothing Shuarra Meitsuki had ever heard. She took a step back, a little frightened. His eyes turned red. His markings grew more prominent. He glared at Shuarra. She knew that she had better run.

She turned around to flee, but it was too late. He had a stranglehold on her arm, and his other arm wrenched the tar free from her hand. He dumped the rest of it on her. She screamed too.

Rin came rushing inside, panting, looking fearful. Then she slowly relaxed, and the fear became frustration. “What's going on here!” she demanded.

Kuraimaru shoved the cup angrily back to his sister. “She put tar in my hair!”

“He put tar in my hair!” she countered.

“Only because you did it to me first, you brat!”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“Stop!” Rin yelled before it got out of hand. Kuraimaru was still angry. His markings had receded to normal, but his eyes were still quite red. He was extremely angry. “Kuraimaru, what happened?”

“Shuarra Meitsuki put tar in my hair, and then I put some in hers!”

“Kurai-kun is mean!” Shuarra wailed.

His temper rose. The markings twisted again into a half transformation. He threw his arm out. The sheer force of his aura threw both Shuarra Meitsuki and Rin backwards. Rin his her back against the door, and Shuarra was flung backwards to the window, which, thankfully, wasn't open.

Iria came rushing inside, almost falling over Rin. “I heard yelling. What's—“ She felt herself fly through the air, hitting the wall outside the room. There wasn't much force to it; she wasn't hurt at all. Not even Rin was hurt, but it was still sort of disorienting and unexpected.

Kuraimaru finally realized what he was doing and the flames of his temper cooled. He looked at the three of them, then looked down. “Gomennasai,” he said quietly. “I didn't mean to.”

Rin sighed. Time to go wake up Sesshoumaru after all. However, she didn't need to. He came in partially dressed. Kuraimaru spilled the entire story to him.

Shuarra Meitsuki and Kuraimaru both would be punished according. However, there was no other way about it; they had to cut their hair.

Kuraimaru's hair was cropped to jaw-length, which he hated. Poor Shuarra, however, had to have it cut even shorter, which she was very angry about, and she cried when they cut it. Kuraimaru just sort of stared at his hair and touched it a lot in horror.

After witnessing their reactions, they decided that this punishment would be enough. They behaved themselves for the rest of the voyage.

At the end of it, their things were sent ahead and they said their last farewells to Nanako and her crew. There was no real hurry. They had already made the proper arrangements for their home and everything, so no one was terribly worried. It was just a matter of them getting there. So, they had plenty of time to enjoy the new scenery, animals, and people.

Speaking of which, during Naraku's last time of weakness, when he had pulled himself back together—literally—he had changed his appearance so as not to look quite so Japanese. Sesshoumaru didn't like it at all. When they stopped to make camp, he and Rin often poured over old scrolls of spell forms, looking for something for Shuarra Meitsuki and, possibly, Rin, if at all possibly. Kuraimaru was so pale that it didn't matter too much. And, regarding his hair colour, they could merely say that it ran in that side of the family to get gray hair early.

When Rin had implied that, Sesshoumaru had sent her such a murderous glare that she had burst out howling with laughter. He was so vain that he didn't even like it implied that he aged. It certainly didn't seem as though neither he nor Naraku had aged a day since she had first met either of them, though they certainly had.

Finally, Rin found something that could be of use. She triumphantly presented it to Naraku. He scanned over it and, delighted, immediately set to work on it. Shuarra Meitsuki was not pleased with the results.

“I look funny!” she whined.

“So do I,” he countered.

She giggled, then looked at her reflection in the pool and scowled. “Shuarra doesn't like it! Make it go back!”

“We can't do that; it might create problems.”

“No!”

“Meitsuki…”

“No! Shuarra Meitsuki doesn't like it!”

This sort of argument continued until Naraku found a spell to mute her voice, then she fell silent on her own upon threat. Luckily, after a frantic search through their traveling archive, they found something useful for Rin. Anyone who didn't know her as one thing, would see her as another. It was quite versatile, so Rin basically got to choose exactly what she looked like without altering anything for herself or for her adopted family. She decided to be blonde, have green eyes, and a few freckles.

After much mostly uneventful traveling, they arrived in their chosen destination. The paths of their new lives were waiting for them. Now it was just a matter of forging those paths.