InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Knight ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Although I didn't get the increase in reviews that I had hoped for *sigh* but I have decided to update anyway because of the fuzzy content of the four or five reviews that I had gotten, so this is dedicated to BlueDart, XxDemonExterminatorHanayuxX, MichiruAOZ, BlueEyedNinja, filledelmer, silverstargazing, DeadlySoulCaster, BRENDA, and kogas_woman21, ..thank you all!!!!

 

Chapter 5

 

The great Lord of the West burst through the courtyard of the dark castle. The evil barrier had parted to let himself and his small band of troops in, so he knew the despicable hanyou was waiting. He made the signal for his warriors to attack from all sides; there was a war cry from inside the dark abode so that all knew that the battle had begun.

 

With his sword already drawn the prince entered the foreboding place, he saw that his first opponents were the wind witch and the void child. Naraku wanted to tire him out before they fought; it was obvious. The hanyou was such a coward.

 

Kagura smirked at him as she lifted her fan. She had always had a thing for the demon lord, but he never once acknowledged her, she had at one point thought him to prefer males but that was overruled when he had decapitated a courtier for suggesting that in his presence. She had stopped running after him, with whatever dignity Naraku gave her in tact, stating that it wasn't worth it. She released her famed wind blade attack. Her smirk widened with the knowledge that he couldn't escape it.

 

The lord of the west scowled as the blades sped towards him. He knew he couldn't dodge all, being in the enclosed space of the corridor and all, but he could deflect some. He raised tokijin and released some of the sword's dark energy. The powers collided, making a small explosion. He dodged the last blade that came for him with ease, looking at the wind demon with bored eyes. He really did not have time for these games.

 

Kagura released another attack, the arcs of power were once again deflected and the corridor was destroyed. Miasma from the outside floated in and mingled with the air of the corridor, slightly deadening the senses of the youkai lord. Said lord cursed inwardly yet still continued to attack.

 

Kanna, the void demon, erected a barrier around herself and her `sister' to deflect the attack of the demon lord. The attack instead was absorbed and increased by the barrier; the sword had been made from the head of one of their fellow minions, Goshinki, so his power would be familiar to them, none thought it would or could be used against them.

 

Kagura cried out as she was hit with the attack. Red ink-like blood seeped from her wound as she glared at the demon lord. Grabbing Kanna, she fled the castle on her feather; she knew that very soon Naraku would do the same (without the feather).

 

The aristocrat of the west was unfazed as he continued down the already decimated corridor to where he knew Naraku sat.

 

Naraku sat in his sitting room calmly awaiting the arrival of a slightly fatigued lord of the west. That was not the parcel he received as he heard the departure of his main warriors. He looked out the shaded window beside him contemplating his next move; Kagura was not to have left this early on in the battle, nor was she to leave without the demoness in the room down the corridor. He did not want to see such good talent go to waste, nor did he want to use her this early. She was his get-out-of-jail-free card and he intended to use her to his advantage.

 

He looked towards the door as he saw the towering lord glaring at him. “Sesshoumaru, we meet again,” he said innocently, a small smirk worming its way on his visage.

 

“Naraku” Sesshoumaru spat glaring at the spider hanyou before him. Naraku stood and faced the livid lord before him. “You dare challenge this Sesshoumaru,” the full demon growled flexing his clawed hand.

 

Naraku chuckled darkly and shot a tentacle out at Sesshoumaru, the prince dodged easily then lunged at the dark hanyou, using the oncoming appendages as leverages. Naraku's eyes widened as tokijin's blade narrowly missed his flesh. He jumped backwards and withdrew, putting a barrier into place to protect himself.

 

Sesshoumaru growled once again and started hacking at the barrier, using tokijin's power and energy to weaken it and Naraku's other defenses. A tentacle shot out of the hanyou, catching the lord off-guard and impaling a white clad shoulder. The lord winced in pain and staggered backwards, ceasing his assault on the barrier for favoring his injured shoulder. He glared even more fiercely at Naraku, who now held an evil glint in his eye.

 

The hanyou lunged at the injured lord, drawing a hidden sword and swinging it; Sesshoumaru parried the blow, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder. Unaware of the miasma slowly infecting the wound.

 

Sesshoumaru sliced Naraku in the back, the hanyou howled in rage and went to one knee. Blood spewed from the wound, mingling with the other demon's blood already accumulating on the damaged wooden floor. Both were getting weary, it was now a matter of who fell first.

 

Naraku heaved himself up and lunged at Sesshoumaru who had been readying an attack. With a yell, Sesshoumaru releases poisoned youki needles at the unsuspecting hanyou. There was a small eruption of power and left in its wake was a heavily breathing injured taiyoukai.

 

“Damnit, the coward,” he cursed eyeing the hole in the wall the hanyou used to escape.

(o)o

 

“Do you think its over?” Shippo asked terrified, they had been listening to the sounds of battle for quite a while now, and then all together everything stopped.

 

“I don't know,” Kagome replied with a small shrug

 

“Then go check,”

 

“Why don't you?” she countered slightly glaring at the small kit.

 

“I'm a kid, you're the adult,” he stuck out his tongue at her.

 

“There's not way,” she whispered back fiercely, “that I'm doing that.” Shippo looked over at the demoness he thought of as his sister, she was the closest in relation that he had. If she died he didn't what he would do or more importantly could do, he was a child after all.

 

“Go open the door,” he whispered at her

 

“No way,” the demoness whined, “I'm not getting myself killed,”

 

“But it's over,”

 

“So what, the enemy could be still out there, ready to kill any survivors,” the two were so deep in their argument that they didn't hear the heavy footfalls outside the door, nor the sliding back of said door.

 

“But-“ Shippo started then froze,

 

“See what I mean,” Kagome muttered looking up at the battered, yet regal looking lord.

(o)

 

Sesshoumaru entered the battered hallway; he was just about the leave the miasma-infested place to return to his castle to regain his strength when whispers caught his ears. He was the only survivor of his battalion that had gone there, and it irked him to no end that the `children' of the vile half-ling was able to defeat his troops.

 

He walked slowly towards a door at the end of the hall and paused, listening to the small argument that was taking place. The voices he heard were vaguely familiar to him. He slid back the door, and paused slightly; the room was virtually untouched by the miasma. He looked inside and saw a demoness and a very familiar kitsune kit. They both looked up at him,

 

“Uh-oh,” the kit said,

 

“Why does he feel so familiar?” the demoness muttered to the kit who in turn shrugged. Sesshoumaru recognized one of them as the kitsune kit that traveled with his brother in the little group, but who was this demoness?

 

“Kagome,” the kit muttered still watching the demon lord who was looking at them with his scrutinizing gaze, the demoness, Kagome, was fiddling with the sleeves of her kimono, “What do you think is going to happen to us?” he asked

 

Kagome, that name sounded familiar to him, ah yes the miko wench that also traveled with his brother. But this woman was a demon; the wench was a human miko.

 

“You killed Naraku right?” Kagome spoke up looking at him through her bangs, “And now you're going to kill us…”

 

“What?” Shippo asked fearfully, apparently he had no idea what to think.

 

“The coward isn't dead.” Sesshoumaru spat, Kagome winced at the tone and Shippo hid behind her think mass of hair.

 

“Who are you?” she asked again, timidly this time. Sesshoumaru was taken by surprise, if this was the same woman whom traveled with his brother, then she should know him, after all, she had interfered with his battles more times than he liked to disclose, and she also managed to leave without a scratch also. He had somehow formed a grudging respect for her in his mind. Though he would never admit that. “I mean- your aura feels familiar, b-but I don't know who you are.”

 

The lord blinked, the only outwardly sign that he was in shock, what had the hanyou done to them. It was obvious to him that she was the human witch that journeyed with his half-breed brother, but she was not human anymore. Just what was Naraku planning. He had obviously erased their memories, and hid her powers, from what he could tell, but for what reason? What was the deviant hanyou thinking? He spun on his heels and left the room, something was brewing and he was going to find out just what it was.

 

Kagome sprang up, and Shippo clung to her hair for dear life. She stopped just outside the door, her eyes taking in the carnage and her nose the miasma. “Wait!” she choked, her eyes tearing up from the burning sensation of the miasma on them and in her throat. He stopped, but didn't look at her, “You can't just leave us here,”

 

“And why is that?” he asked impassively looking at them from the corner of his eyes.

 

“We have nowhere else to go- we don't remember anything! We have no other options. Please, “ she pleaded, her eyes watering even more now, “at least just drop us off at the nearest village or something, but please don't leave us here.”

 

He looked at her, she was paste white, like death, she must have not been let out at all. She was crying, mainly because of the miasma now in her system, but he hated seeing females cry, it was something he grew up to. “You were not born as a youkai were you?” he asked her. She looked up at him and shook her head slowly.

 

He sighed slightly and inaudibly, he now knew that she was his brother's companion. Naraku must have kidnapped her and the kit and her miko sealed away so he could change her with no problems. But what of the kit, what did he, or would he want with a kitsune child? Looking at her now, it was obvious that she knew nothing more than what she was taught.

 

With another sigh he motioned for her to follow him as he made his way out of the ruined place.

 

Kagome trudged happily behind the demon introduced as Sesshoumaru. She continued to fiddle with the sleeves of her kimono, a nervous habit she picked up while in seclusion. Sesshoumaru walked on in front of them, his wounds were healing slowly, due to the poison, but healing nonetheless. His thoughts wandered to the demons behind him; he couldn't bring them back to his hanyou brother just yet, he needed information from them, thus ruling out the village suggestion.

 

Besides he couldn't just leave them at a village, they would be out-cased soon as he left. But why did he care? Was it because of the knowledge that they knew little? Or were literally helpless?

 

Or was it that he pitied them?

 

As a lord he had to think of the well being of his subjects, and as long as they resided in the western territories, they were acknowledged as part of that generalization. So it went deeper than just pity, it was just his duty.

 

He thought on the subject a bit more, weighing the pros and cons of leaving them in a village temporarily. Upon seeing how the demoness had reacted to leaving the barrier it would be safe to say that, neither she, nor the kit would really know how to react around people, especially human people. There was also the factor that he wanted nothing to do with the mortal race, and that covers being indebted to them, so to solve all of his mental stress, they would be journeying with him back to his dwelling.

 

He looked towards the heavens, noticing the purple tinge to the sky. It was soon to be nightfall. He stopped and looked back at her slightly; the kit was asleep somewhere in her hair. “We camp here for the night,” he said.

 

She jolted to a stop and looked at him with wide eyes before looking up at the sky, it was becoming dark; she hadn't even realized that it was so late. She nodded slightly before seating herself under a particularly large tree. She leaned back and untangled the snoozing kit from her locks. She placed him in her lap and he curled himself in a tight ball against her stomach. She smiled slightly at him.

 

Sesshoumaru sat under a tree of his own nearby, he let out a small unrecognizable hiss of pain was a particularly annoying rock jutted him in a raw leg wound. They were at least three days from his castle; he decided to just go ahead in his interrogation to pass time.

 

“How long have you been held captive?” he asked, the first obvious questions of a few.

 

Kagome looked up slightly with half-lidded eyes, she took a moment to contemplate before answering his question, “about sixteen or seventeen nights I believe, I'm really not sure,” she said.

 

He nodded, she was too fascinated by the wildlife to have been captive for a mere few days, and the fact that she was as pale as death added to that conclusion. She was too awed by the greenery outside the barrier limits so he figured they had erased even her most basic of memoirs. It was as if the hanyou had decided on making a living zombie; the erasing of her memories eliminates her ties to the world making his work easier.

 

“What do you know about this world?” he decided to leave his previous line of questioning, it was best to actually know of what she knew first.

 

“Naraku is a sick bastard.” She began, “that we were taken from… wherever it is that we came from. I know that I was human. I know that Kagura would rather kill herself than help Naraku, but he had made it so that that option was void. I know that I was being trained to fight without remorse, to kill.” She said the last part quietly. She didn't want to look at the demon interrogating her, he probably thought even less of her know.

 

He watched her reaction; she was ashamed of herself that much was obvious. She had every right to be ashamed of what she had been made into; she was born a pure creature, never to take life, even the lives of the deserving.

 

“Sleep now,” he commanded, “We leave at daybreak.”

(8)

 

Ok, new chapter please review…and honsestly…I doubt any sucking up will help.