InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The 2 Great Swords ❯ Second Attempt ( Chapter 6 )

The bars severed, it was only a matter of time until Inuyasha's escape was found out by the prison guards. Fortunately, it was a smaller matter of time before he planned to be out of the castle. He turned to see his female rescuer waving him on.

 

They weaved through the courtyard towards the nearest wall, on the south side. “Here, from what I've seen you can leap a wall can't you?” Kagome questioned. Inuyasha simply smirked and grabbed the other rescuer and put him on his shoulder.

 

He was about to say something in return but a soldier walking around the grounds had seen them and was bringing reinforcements. So he settled for “Bye”. He took off at an alarming rate leaping the castle wall before he was well over it, kit in tow.

 

After a few well placed jumps, whizzing by the wall sentries, he was gone. Kagome allowed herself a small smile before turning to face the approaching guards. `Well, maybe he will prohibit me from seeing Kouga' She thought dryly.

 

“Princess! What are you doing? How could you assist the prisoner to escape?!?” The head guardsman was furious. Kagome simply stood there, holding her ground. “Come on, the king will have more to say than I, that you can be sure of.” He waved her on and she followed fully prepared for Akira's unavoidable outburst.

 

 

Naraku was pleased. In fact he was more than pleased. He had heard of a half demon that was captured. Now said half demon had escaped. There were many benefits to this.

 

First, the king in his rage had dispatched a good deal of the castle guards to hunt him down. Thus leaving the castle sorely undefended.

 

Second, the princess had helped the jailbreak and was now confined in a room in the tallest tower. There she would be an easy target for his army.

 

“Sir!” He turned around to see a rat-looking demon bow to him, his general. “The troops are in position; we will be ready to attack at sundown with your command.”

 

He grinned. Everything was going well. Soon the North kingdom would be no more than a memory. “Good. Bring Blade to me” The general visibly paled at this but obeyed. He ran off to fetch one of the most brutal creatures in the land.

 

Blade was a creature that originated from a long forgotten tribe of ocelot demons. It is said that he was the leader of the tribe, up until some tribesman decided he was getting to be too powerful and they decided to assassinate him. But when this became known, Blade went into a berserker rage and tore his attackers apart.

 

He then proceeded to kill every tribesman even if they had nothing to do with the attempt on his life. With that done, he slaughtered one village after another before reaching the northern kingdom. There he met Naraku, who was then a general in the north army.

 

Instead of killing him like he was ordered to, he took control of him with a powerful drug that was laced into arrow points. This drug put him completely under Naraku's control and as long as he kept taking it, Naraku alone could tell him where to focus his blood lust.

 

The various demons around him shivered as Blade was brought forward, eagerness in his eyes for another victim. “Blade, I have a target for you.” His head snapped up as his eyes took on a feral gleam. “In the battle tonight, I want you to climb the highest tower. In it you will find a girl. I'm sure you know what to do after that.”

 

Blade was grinning insanely as he was brought away. Naraku's general piped up “Sir, I thought you had promised the girl to the wolf prince…why do you want to kill her.” He was silenced by glare that clearly said, `don't question me'.

 

It was true that Kouga would be furious that the agreement wouldn't be upheld, however that wouldn't be all he'd feel. The loss of his obsession would bring remorse and hatred into him. Such feelings were fed upon by the sword he now carried, Muramasa. The sword would ultimately have complete control over him at this point, making him no more of a pawn than Blade.

 

Naraku looked to the sun as it began to start it's downward trek. In darkness he would strike. In darkness the castle would fall. He started going back to the castle. He alone would see the once great king off to the next world.

 

 

Up in the highest tower of the castle, Kagome was in a fit. She had gone through her father's rage and had been quite shaken. The images were playing in her head again and again.

 

“You stupid child! Did you even know what you were doing!?!” Akira through a nearby chair to the wall, shattering it. He was sporting a nice scar on the right side of his face, a mark of who had gotten away.

 

Kagome held back tears as her father continued. “How could you let such filth escape?!? Answer me, Child!” He had not used her name once in his rant. The queen was crying over on the other side of the room, offering no help to Kagome.

 

“Why do you keep calling him filth? He was not some animal to be locked up, he didn't do anything to deserver to be killed.” She responded, keeping her tone even.

 

Akira looked, if possible, even more furious. “He was born! There's his mistake. You listen here. He and his kind are mistakes and shouldn't be allowed to live. You are hereby confined to the tower until you can get that through your head!”

 

That had been the end of it and now her she was crying into the pillow of the bed that had been moved her for her use. She looked up as she heard the door open. Turning around she saw her mother coming in.

 

The moment the door closed she smiled sadly at her daughter, “I'm sorry Kagome. He's just so set in his beliefs that he lashed out like that.”

 

“You *sniff* you don't think those things too do you?” She had to know that she wasn't the only one with her sense of justice.

 

Her mother shook her head. “It was one of the things I've had to put up with being queen. In fact, a long time ago a half demon saved my life.” Kagome settled down a bit at her words. “It was a long time ago, before I came to the castle to become queen. I lived in a village to the southeast.

 

“The village had been attacked by a savage demon, everyone was being killed …” Kagome saw her mother's eyes become downcast by her memories. “But, just as he was rounding on me, a big human resembling person stepped in and killed the demon. He was a half demon but was very kind.”

Kagome stopped crying. “I did what I did because he didn't deserve to die. He attempted to save a small fox demon's parents, even when he was about to turn human.”

 

Her mother smiled warmly. “Seems like you had some sort of affection towards this boy.” Kagome immediately flushed at this.

 

“N-No. I just di-didn't think…” She trailed off and looked out the window. Her mother approached the bed and gave her daughter a sound hug.

 

“I'll talk to your father, everything will be just fine, you'll be out of here soon.” Kagome returned the hug with a small whispered “Thank you, Mother”. Satisfied with Kagome's mood, her mother stepped up and left the room.

 

Feeling much better, Kagome drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

 

“It is time.” Naraku's general waved his hand to the army. Tired of waiting, they charged in the direction of the castle with the promise of human victims.

 

Nearby, Inuyasha was making his way through a small grove when his ears perked up to the sound of demons. Crouching into the underbrush he saw thousands of demons take off in the direction of the castle.

 

`Heh. Looks like that bastard king is in trouble. Good for him.' He turned to go before a tiny tug on his leg stopped him. He looked down to see Shippo.

 

“Inuyasha! Are they going to the castle?” Inuyasha scowled down at the kit. He had been following him around without any other place to go and he couldn't bring himself to tell him to get lost.

 

“Yep. Looks like they don't stand a chance.” He turned to leave. Shippo didn't move. He was looking fearfully in the direction of the castle.

 

“But…what about Kagome? What will happen to her? She helped you didn't she?” He turned to see Inuyasha shrug.

 

He opened his mouth to say something like “Who cares” but instead he found he couldn't. Images of his mother came back along with her voice. `When one has the power to do something good, one should do it.' That was her favourite saying and he felt it to embody who she was.

 

He stood still, not even acknowledging Shippo's questions as he was hit by memories of his mother's face. Then…he saw his mother's death… His heart felt like it had been stabbed again just as it had many years ago. He looked up to the sky. `Mother…I bet you'd want me to at least save her.'

 

He spun around throwing a startled Shippo off his shoulder to face the direction of the castle. “Shippo, stay here.” Shippo looked surprised.

 

“You're going to save her?”

 

“Yep. She saved me and I always repay my debts. I've got my honour,” He grinned down at the kit. “Remember that runt.” With that he took off at a sprint.

 

“Inuyasha… you're a better person than I thought.” Shippo said aloud, to no one in particular as he watched his new friend go to save Kagome. He smiled at that before leaping in a tree to wait. He yawned, “I'll repay you someday too.”