InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Last Thing I Need ❯ Act I Scene 2 ( Chapter 2 )

A/N

Warnings: none

Disclaimer: I do not own: InuYasha and company, or the last name I gave InuYasha and Sessy in this fic (that's from Dolphingirl0113)

Special thanks to: banbadkarma, my idea bouncer, and Amaya Mishugosha, my beta reader.

The Last Thing I Need

Act I Scene 2

The bed creaked under the sudden strain of the extra hundred seventy-odd pounds as InuYasha sighed heavily and threw himself into it that night. Kouga followed him shortly, still complaining about all the trouble InuYasha had caused earlier, though he had been at it for so long, InuYasha had stopped listening.

Kouga continued complaining; about the trouble InuYasha got him into, about how InuYasha was forcing him to join a club with him, how InuYasha was being completely unresponsive, and how he couldn't ask the hot girl out because InuYasha wouldn't let him.

In fact, Kouga complained from the minute he entered the room, while he was getting his things, and until he left to take a shower.

InuYasha, meanwhile, just stared at the ceiling deep in thought. He didn't remember the night it happened, but he could still picture it as clear as day in his mind from the stories. The day the battle began...

::200-some years earlier::

The castle was quiet as Higurashi Makoto crept slowly along the paper wall. His job was simple- kill the woman who consented to mate with a demon along with her unborn child. This wasn't the first attempt, no, many before him had tried to do this deed, but all had been killed by the demon or sent back if he was in his mate's presence.

Her time was drawing near, so this was the last chance any of his clan would get to assassinate her. The great demon was away, so there was nobody difficult who would notice the intrusion. The plan was to slay the demon once his mate was dead and he was weakened from her death.

The simple Makoto continued to creep along the wall to the woman's rooms, not noticing the steadily growing demonic aura. He entered the room and before the woman had a chance to cry out, he took his katana and sliced her neck, killing her almost instantly. It was then that he heard a faint cry.

The woman had given birth to the abomination before he had managed to get to her.

Makoto raised his sword one last time, but a loud crack echoed throughout the wing of the castle. Just in time to stop the swinging of Makoto's blade InuTaisho leapt straight through the wall drawing his own blade. He made a sudden unaimed sweep at Makoto, sending him flying into the wall.

InuTaisho resheathed the sword of death and drew another, the sword of life. Calming himself, InuTaisho sensed the death demons already crowding around his mate's body. He quickly slayed them, then paused as his mate coughed and began to breathe again.

He turned back around and faced the intruder, the sword of death back in his hands. Makoto was only beginning to pick himself back up, and InuTaisho looked back over his shoulder. “Izayoi, take our son and run. Get out of here as fast as possible.”

Her newly opened eyes softened as she looked at her love, realizing that this could very easily be the last time she saw him alive. “Hai,” she said, lowering her eyes again as she picked up the child. The little boy began to cry, somehow sensing the tension in the air around him. The woman slowly stood up and prepared to flee.

Makoto, meanwhile, had regained his feet. He lunged at the demon, who had a slight amount of difficulty fending him off. In the end, Makoto went flying into the wall again. Makoto was not the smartest man ever, but he was very skilled with the sword. He was up again almost immediately. In a burst of anger, Makoto lashed out at the closest object, which happened to be a lamp holder.

The thin metal stand crashed to the floor, immediately igniting the drapery. InuTaisho turned around one last time and tossed Izayoi a red cloth, made of the fur from the fire rat, to protect her from the flames. His eyes softened for an instant. “Name him. . . InuYasha. Now run!” Izayoi threw on the robe and ran as fast as she could, flames close behind.

InuTaisho and Makoto fought until the roof of the castle collapsed on them, as Izayoi watched from the road.

She never found out how the battle ended.

Izayoi had immediately gone to the home of the nearest member of InuTaisho's clan, SesshouMaru's castle. SesshouMaru absolutely hated the idea of having a human and a vile half-breed in his house, and she was shipped off to a more distant member of the clan.

There she raised InuYasha, under the dislike of the other demons, until she died of heartbreak when InuYasha was only five years old.

::Present Time::

InuYasha flopped over onto his stomach. Those horrible Higurashis had murdered his father, and in the end, it had killed his mother as well. All because they couldn't understand.

Ever since then, InuYasha's family had been out for revenge. The Higurashis had reacted with equal force, and it had escalated over two centuries until both hated each other completely. The children were taught from the cradle to hate the other group. While over three generations had passed on the human side, many of the demons had lived then and were still very young.

InuYasha vented his frustration by punching the wall, though not hard enough to damage it. He didn't need to cause more damage that day. He flopped back onto his back and began to fall asleep, still in his clothing.

THUD!

A boot hit the wall as Iwahara Sango began taking off her `party' clothes. She had attended a sorority party with one of her old high school friends, and now at midnight she had finally returned only because she had a killer test the next morning.

Thud! CRASH!

The other boot hit the wall softer, but it bounced right into the lamp that Kagome had put on the desk.

Next, completely unfazed by the broken lamp, Sango undid her high ponytail and fastened her hair lower, about at her shoulders. She slithered out of her skin-tight tube top and donned a looser T-shirt that had the symbol for L'Arc En Ciel, her favorite band, on the front. She left on the jeans she was wearing, instead just clipping off the chains.

A sharp bang echoed throughout the room as somebody knocked on the door. “Sango? I forgot my key again. Could you let me in?”

Sango rolled her eyes. “Yeah, hang on a minute.” She continued to clean herself up, taking her time. Kagome locked herself out at least once a week, so it was no big deal. She finally opened the door as Kagome was preparing to knock again. “You know, what if I wasn't here one of these times? You'd be locked out for quite a while.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now move over and let me in. You leaving again tonight?” Kagome wandered into the room and plopped onto a chair.

Sango eyed her exhausted friend with raised eyebrows. “I'm going down to the common room to see if anybody interesting is there. I'll probably be back kind of late. See you later.” With that, Sango left the room and headed down the hall.

Kagome sighed again; nobody had bothered to talk to her all day, because the majority of her classmates blamed her for their difficulties. The day had not gone well.

Once the fire crew had finished inspecting the building, a specialized plumber had been called in along with an electrician to stop the water flow and turn the electricity back on. It wasn't until one o'clock that any student was allowed in. Because of the water damage, every student residing in the east wing of the dorm building floors one through six were moved. Most ended up in various hotels around the campus.

Kagome had wound up in Tokyo Views, which wasn't a five-star hotel but was still good. Sango and her room was very similar to their dorm room, except it only had one desk but did have a stove.

All three of them, InuYasha, Kagome, and Kouga were forced to help everyone else move before they were able, and Kagome had only now returned from helping Nurasaki Mishiko move all of her clothing.

Throughout all this, she still hadn't talked to her teacher.

After relaxing for a while, Kagome got up and went over to her bed stand. The deal was that Sango got majority control over the desk, but Kagome got the nightstand. She opened the drawer and pulled out a thick faux-leather bound book, took the small key that hung around her neck and undid the journal's latch.

Kagome then crawled onto her bed, bounced a few times to get comfortable, and grabbed the remote. She flicked the TV on and tuned into the local Anime Bonanza Network. Just as Rurouni Kenshin was beginning.

One of Kagome's favorite story lines, Rurouni Kenshin was just beginning a season of reruns, which she appreciated. She popped a lollipop into her mouth and hummed a little while she watched the first half of the show. About when Kenshin showed up at the bad guy's dojo she turned her attention to her journal.

I ran into InuYasha again, she began bluntly sticking the end of her pen into her mouth in thought, holding the lollipop in one hand. Her gaze drifted back to the TV, just as Kenshin arrived in the nick of time at the Kamiya dojo to defeat the bad guys.

That idiot. We got into another one of our infamous arguments. This time he threw an apple at me, but being the complete no-brain klutz he is, hit the sprinkler instead. Not just hit; turned on and knocked the head off too. So here I sit, in a free hotel room. It wasn't even my fault(!), but I have to pay part of the damages. I hate him so much I could just. . .

Happy thoughts.

Kagome paused again, and watched as another episode of Rurouni Kenshin began. She hummed along with the theme song more openly after she threw her used lollipop stick in the trash can.

So much for happy thoughts.

This whole mess started back a long time ago, as in centuries. I guess the fates just wanted to mess with my life and make me part of this fated family. Maybe it's karma, and I was a horrible person in a past life.

I guess I should make some attempt at recording the reason why I, a very mild-mannered person, can get into a situation like this. For posterity's sake.

It all started back a couple hundred centuries, back before Japan was united and each province was ruled by a warlord. Higurashi Hitaku was the warlord of one of the most powerful provinces. It was said that he could muster enough strength in an army to be able to defeat one of the most powerful demons, the Inu no Taisho. Because the villagers constantly spread this rumor that completely lacked truth, Hitaku felt threatened. . .

Higurashi Hitaku paced the length of his massive throne room, deep in thought. The rumors had to be stopped, but there was no way, he couldn't just kill all of his subjects. Unfortunately, Hitaku lived in the constant fear that one day all of his family and subjects would be murdered by a blood-thirsty demon bent on revenge.

“Father, may I have a word with you?” A low, but exceptionally strong, voice spoke from the shadows.

“Yes, my flower?” Hitaku turned towards the voice, that of his eldest daughter, Kikyo. She sat perfectly poised on a cushion on the far side of the room, her head bowed in respect.

“I have heard that the Inu no Taisho's wife is with child. Is this true? If so, you have an outlet for your strike.”

Hitaku thought for a moment, more for show then anything else. He would never purposely harm someone unprovoked, and he would especially never consider harming a pregnant woman. “Kikyo, that is not wise. An unnecessary show of power and death will only provoke the demons.”

Kikyo hummed low in her throat in submission, but inwardly she was plotting the attack already.

::Eight Months Later::

Kikyo knew she was openly defying her lord by planning the attack. She didn't care. Hitaku was a soft-hearted fool to not see the opportunity.

She had already sent eighteen of the land's best men in secret assassination attempts. Her father wondered where all of his army officers and soldiers were, but nobody had ever thought to blame the princess. Kikyo's spies told her that the woman, a human, was due to give birth within the next two weeks. They also told her that her demon mate was going to be away for a week on an ambassador mission.

Now was the time to strike swift and hard.

Kikyo cast a wary eye at the man before her on the other side of the screen. Higurashi Makoto was nervously fiddling with the strap on his kimono. She knew he didn't believe in what he what she was making him do, but neither had the men before him. Kikyo had managed to convince them all.

Unfortunately, this was her last chance to succeed, and Makoto was very stubborn in his beliefs. “Makoto, if you do this for me, I will make you a general in my father's army, and give you status as a minor lord of this province.”

Makoto turned slightly red at these words. He was a peasant, only chosen because he had merit after defeating a minor demon and saving a group of village girls. He was embarrassed that he was chosen last- he would rather not have been chosen at all. He also had heard that every other man had been slain during their attack.

Makoto was no fool. He learned this early on when he was beaten for having the same last name as the lord of the province. Now Kikyo, the princess, wanted him to go against his conscience and kill an innocent woman.

Kikyo glanced through heavily lidded eyes at the man who sat quivering before her. She knew he didn't want to help, and she knew that he was ashamed that he did not merit enough to get chosen among the first- even though he wished he hadn't been chosen at all.

However, she sensed that what she was offering didn't matter to him. Makoto was too simple-minded to want a place of power. “Makoto,” she said suddenly, “If you consent to do this favor for me, I will marry you. You will not have to rule the land, although you have the name to. But think, if you kill one simple girl, you will have the greatest treasure in the land.”

No man could resist the offer that she was making. Makoto hadn't even seen her face, but he didn't need to. It was treason for a commoner to set eyes on the princess unbidden by her father. Kikyo knew that no matter what happened, Makoto wouldn't see her anyway. If he wasn't slain by the woman's guards at the castle, Makoto would be killed by her father upon his return for his betrayal of the law. It would never be traced back to her, and her plan would be fulfilled.

Kikyo smirked. It would work out perfectly for her either way.

One of the candles on a pedestal next to the screen flickered, indicating that a shoji had been opened somewhere in the wing of the castle. “You must leave soon. Someone is coming. You strike in three days, I have an escort set to lead you to the Inu no Taisho castle. Do not disobey me.” Kikyo rose and exited through a shoji behind her, leaving Makoto alone in the empty room as a draft extinguished the rest of the oil lights.

::Two Weeks Later::

Kikyo bowed her head in failure once again. It had been a week since she learned of Makoto's failure to kill the mortal woman and her hybrid child.

She should have been grateful; Makoto did manage to kill the demon itself and he had died himself in the process. Unfortunately, that meant the woman and infant were alive somewhere as witnesses as to who murdered the demon. As she sat in thought the woman was probable telling some other high ranking inu-youkai to come and exact revenge.

Either way, Kikyo got what she wanted, so she no longer cared.

. . . And so, diary, the demons did come for revenge. Not for the widowed woman, they didn't care about her, but for their dead leader. SesshouMaru himself came and burned the Higurashi castle down after killing all of its occupants.

My ancestors came from Hitaku's youngest son who was away from the palace at the time. Of course, after such a defeat, the Higurashis lost all of their power as rulers and the Inu-Youkai added the Higurashi province to their assets.

Hikatu, my great-great-great-great-something grandfather was allowed to live but was stripped of his title. Only on his deathbed did he tell his family his true name, and the legacy was passed down in secret until the Higurashis could walk freely down a street again.

Now, ironically enough, we share Tokyo with the same SesshouMaru and half-breed son (InuYasha, Duh). Because demons live so long. Supposedly, SesshouMaru hasn't changed since then, but InuYasha has grown to the rough equivalent of my age. Go figure.

Since there is a law against killing each other, the two families simply attack and stop just before fatal harm is delt.

Kagome looked at the clock. In her writing, a whole hour of her life had passed by unnoticed.

Sango still hadn't returned, so Kagome just put her pajamas on and crawled into bed with the light still on. If Sango was going to come in and turn it on anyway, why bother to turn it off? With that thought in her head, Kagome drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

And that's it for scene two! Hope you enjoyed it, see you next time!