InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Poison of Erised! ❯ Chapter Nine - The Gift of Hearing! ( Chapter 9 )

The Poison of Erised!

by Vyncent

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::This story contains GRAPHIC violence, sexual content! You are WARNED::

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Disclaimer:  I do not own Inuyasha, nor any of the associated characters.  But it ain't because I don't want or wish to do so.

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It was another fine day, although it had turned cloudy.  It was more humid, as there was rain in the area, but it was not the oppressive heat of before.  So despite the threatening weather, the persistant group of shard hunters continued on their journey.  Travel had been smooth during their last several days, and while they were disappointed in their efforts to find more shards, they were only about five days out from the village, and their chance to talk to the old miko.

They had just broken through a line of trees, and were starting to cross a large, open glade.  All seemed normal.  Well, as normal as it could be when you are of the 'Modern Era' and walking through a glade in the 'Feudal Era' with two youkai, two ningen with not exactly normal modern careers and lifestyles, and one hanyou with what some would describe as a serious attitude.  Regardless, nothing seemed amiss and the group was making good time that is until the raven hair Miko stopped suddenly in her tracks.

"Kagome?" asked Sango, seeing her friend suddenly stop and seemingly alert to something.

"Kagome," spoke up Inuyasha, "are you sensing jewel shards?"

"Iie, Inuyasha," she spoke softly.  It was little more than a whisper, her attention still tightly focused, as though she was hearing something, or trying to catch some wayward and almost elusive sound. "I do hear something strange though."

Inuyasha, not wanting to discount any possibility, paused to listen as well.  Try as he might, however, he could hear nothing other than the normal wildlife sounds that were common to the area for this time of day.

"Feh!  You are dreaming," he groused.  If he could not hear it, then it was impossible for her to hear whatever she thought it was.  Even his youkai senses were not picking up anything.  He looked over at Miroku, and Sango, neither of them seemed to sense anything unusual.  She had to be imagining whatever it was.  Especially if it was not wrapped around a jewel shard.  "I don't hear anything.  There is nothing there."

"But I do hear something, Inuyasha," Kagome said, still speaking in quiet tones.  By now, she had pulled her bow, and noched an arrow in preparation for attacking something.  What, no one knew, but she seemed so sure, and confident that no one moved to question her.

She stood still as a statue, her eyes closed as she shut out everything around her but what she could hear.  There seemed to be a strange, pulsing, rhythmic sound nearby, and this was what she was focusing on, trying to locate it in their nearby surroundings.  She stood like this for several long moments, and Inuyasha was getting pissed at her seeming efforts to delay their travels.  Standing doing nothing was not gaining them any ground, so why was she wasting time like this?

"Come on wench," he growled in frustration at the delay over nothing, "stop with the shit and let's get moving.  There ain't nothing there."

"Iie," she said, still speaking quietly, and keeping to her tightly focused efforts to pinpoint the sound that only she seemed to be able to hear.  "There is something here.  Something dangerous.  I know it is here.  I can hear it."

"Stupid wench," spat the hanyou, "you are just a weak and useless ningen.  You can't possibly be hearing something that I can't already hear.  We are moving on now."

With that, he started forward once more, completely ignoring the young Miko, who although she started to slowly walk with the rest of them, continued to do so with her eyes closed, and still trying to pinpoint the elusive rhythmic sound that her instincts screamed at her was there and was real.

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"Stupid ignorant hanyou," softly growled the figure that was trailing the shard hunters.  "She does hear something, because it is there.  It is definitely there, but where.  Even I can hear it from here, but it seems to be well camoflaged, or invisible."

As the Youkai Lord, picked up on the sound, he moved in closer to his brother's pack.  It would not do for his mate to get hurt because the hanyou refused to listen to the warning that the girl tried to give him.  He could feel the anxiety that radiated through the link the mark gave him with her, and knew that she was sure of her convictions.  She was right.  There was definitely something lurking nearby, but it was moving around and making it hard to focus on the source of the thing's beating heart.  It was the beating of its heart that she could hear.  For such a sound to be apparent like this, the thing had to be enormous in size, and yet it left no sound, tracks, or trail for anyone to see.

"Baka," the Taiyoukai grumbled in anger, "It is a miracle that no one in your pack has ever been killed due to your ignorance."

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"Come on Kagome," Inuyasha yelled at the girl, "stop slowing us down.  Will you get over yourself and just get a move on?"

"But Inuyasha," she tried again to get him to believe her, "I do hear something.  It is faint, and seems to keep changing position, but it is there.  Why would I lie about something like this?"

"How should I know," he snapped at her again, "stupid wench.  There is nothing there, so stop trying to find excuses to hold us back.  Get moving."

"If I were not sure of what I am hearing," she growled back, doing a rather good impression of one of Inuyasha's own growls, "I would be inclined to say that word until your rude mouth and ill mannered behavior were buried at least six feet down.  There is danger here, and I can hear it.  I do not know why, or how, but I can.  I can't help it if you can't.  So deal with it."

"Stupid bitch," he groused again, "Thinks she can do better than me, a hanyou.  She is probably delusional from that fever she had the other day or something."

Just as he was about to yell at her again, a sudden swooshing sound whistled through the air, and Miroku was sent flying back into a nearby tree.  They had almost reached the other side of the glade, when the now apparently invisible attacker chose to strike, and now the houshi lay unconscious at the base of a large old oak tree.

Seconds later, it was seemingly silent again.  The hanyou now quiet, as he berated himself silently for not having believed Kagome.  He stood defensively, every sense extended as far as he could reach, trying to sense whatever their invisible foe was.  Nothing!  Not a thing gave him a clue as to who, what, or where they were.

Sango had her Hiraikotsu in her hand, drawn back in preparation for throwing.  More than anything, she wanted to run over to see if Miroku was alright, but until the current threat was dealt with, she didn't dare risk the chance.  Kirara stood beside her in full battle form.  She, too, could hear the sound, but like Kagome, it was hard to pinpoint, as it was moving around too much to locate.

Shippo was nerviously standing near Kagome, straining his own senses as far as he could.  Even though he was a full youkai, his hearing was only a little better than Inuyasha's, but that was mostly because he was still too young for his to be stronger.  He did, however, think that he could just barely make out a small sound.  It was not enough for him to be sure, however.

Again that sudden, and unexpected swoosh whistled through the air.  Before anyone could react, it threw Kirara through several trees, bringing her up short against a boulder.  It was hard to tell from this distance, if she was alive or not.  All that they were sure of, was that she had transformed back to her normal small self.

Now they were all on edge, and the fear of this situation was beginning to set in.  Inuyasha was mentally berating himself for not having listened to Kagome's warnings.  But how could she be hearing something when he still could not pick up the sounds?  This didn't make sense.  It had to be something planned by Naraku.  Of that he was sure, but little else came to mind to help aid him in locating their elusive attacker.

"Kagome," he hollered towards the Miko, her eyes closed again concentrating even harder to try to locate the sound that kept beating in her ears.  "Can you still hear this sound of yours?"

"Hai, Inuyasha," she replied instantly.  "But it keeps moving around, and it hard to pinpoint.  It is close though.  It sounds....sounds....like the beating of a heart."

"Shippo," spoke up Inuyasha, "go check on the houshi and Kirara."

"Hai, Inuyasha" came the kit's prompt reply, as he dashed off in the direction of his fallen friend.

Almost out of habit, the remaining three members of the little group, moved until they stood back to back, facing outward to try to defend themselves from this formidable opponent.  Again that sudden swoosh whistled through the air, but this time, knowing what it meant, they all dropped immediately to the ground, just before anyone could be hit by the unknown assailant.

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Sesshomaru was pissed.  There was no way that his baka hanyou half brother should have let things get this far out of hand.  He was such a useless jerk.  He had discounted Kagome's warning, not even giving it the benefit of a doubt, and now look at the situation that he had them in.  If this kept up, they were all bound to get hurt, and that meant that his mate was in danger as well.  His Youkai screamed in rage at the idea and the stupidity for his half brother putting everyone in such danger.

With that in mind, he began to move closer to the group in the hopes to being able to help rescue his mate before the situation got any worse.  He would not, and could not just stand by and watch his mate get killed.  In a flash, he was racing towards the group, uncaring at the moment whether he was seen or not.

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Their senses were on high alert as they stood defensively, trying to locate their attacker.  Their every nerve was screaming to do something, but without seeing who their attacker was, or knowing where they might come from next, they could do little more than hope that they might be able to at least injure their foe.

Again that now familiar whistling swoosh drew their attention.  This time they had just enough time to turn and try to defend themselves.  Unfortunately, it was not nearly enough time.  This time it caught Sango, although she had enough time to dodge before the blow connected, and instead of being thrown like the others, she was merely knocked aside.  She dropped and rolled with the blow, however, and in a moment was back on her feet.

While she didn't go uninjured, it was not yet disabling.  She had a long gash down her one leg, as the swing had caught her on the fly as she had ducked.  But it was not enough to be crippling, at least not yet.  She kept her Hiraikotsu poised and ready to swing on a second's notice.

She was hardly back on her feet again, before that sound was repeated and another attack launched.  This time it seemed that it was aimed at Kagome.  She could still hear the rhythmic beating sound that she had been hearing for a while now.  She just could not quite pinpoint it as their assailant moved so fast.  It was more a matter of inexperience than anything.  The fact that she could hear the sound was almost more than she could understand.  She was so used to having unusual things happen either too her or around her that for the moment she was just taking it in stride, working more on instinct than anything.

As the attack came at her, she tried to turn and at that same moment that the blow connected, she released the arrow that she had held ready for this moment.  She never saw if it landed or not, as right at that moment, she was knocked back, and the last thing she remembered was the ground impacting with the back of her head, and a sharp pain running along from her right hip around and over her belly to just under her left breast.

As she lay unconscious on the ground, bleeding from the blow she had received, she failed to hear the simultaneous roar of pain from their attacker, as he turned and charged for the hanyou, and the roar of rage from the Inuyoukai that had seen the blow that had feld his mate.  Her arrow had indeed hit its intended target, and in so doing it had destroyed its ability to remain invisible.  The enormous bear youkai, roared in outrage and pain, as it took a swing at the almost dumb founded hanyou, clipping him just enough to knock him out before he could return the attack.  The last thing that Inuyasha saw as darkness wrapped itself around his senses, was a blur of white, and one last scream of rage from their attacker.

Though much of it happened too quickly for the kit to see, Shippo did see that Kagome's arrow had caught the unseen attacker in the shoulder, just before its blow had landed on the onna, who had come to almost be a mother to the young kit.  The power from her Miko energy raged around the arrow and at impact, began to dissolve the attacking bear youkai.  Unfortunately, he had been too close to the group of defenders, and they were unable to prevent him from hitting Inuyasha.

He still had enough fight in him, and he turned prepared to give the last blow to the Taijiya.  He had failed to hear the roar of outrage, as the sound of his own pained filled roar had drowned out all other sound.  Because of this, he never saw the white blur that rushed at him with inhuman speed, and dexterity, nor the flare of a green acid whip that shredded him into little pieces as he failed to attack his final target.  With one last roar of pain, the huge beast died violently, his roar fading in the wind.

Sango, relieved to see that their attacker was defeated, had at first thought it was the result of Kagome's arrow.  As the others were all hurt, she didn't take the time to pay much attention to how the beast had died, only that he had, and that except for Shippo, everyone needed to be treated for various injuries.  Before she could fall, from the growing pain in her own injured leg, she turned to survey the area, and assess their situation.

Shippo had moved Kirara over near Miroku, who was now sitting up and leaning against the tree that he had impacted with.  His eyes were closed, but from the look of things, he would be fine.  Inuyasha was still unconscious on the ground near Sango.  As he was the nearest, she limped over to him, using Hiraikotsu to keep from falling as she did.  She checked him for immediate injury and was relieved to see that all he had suffered was having been knocked unconscious.  He had some bruising on the one side of his face, but that was already healing, even as she watched.

She turned to look for Kagome and check on her injuries.  She had seen the girl take a blow and knew that she had been raked by the claws of the beast that her arrow had finally destroyed.  But with all the blood that had been flying, she was not sure how badly Kagome was hurt.  As she looked around trying to find the young Miko, she at first thought that maybe she was wrong, and that Kagome had not been hurt, but was off trying to find her backpack, which had fallen early on in their battle.  But as she turned again to look for her 'sister', she noticed the small pool of fresh blood right where she remembered the girl having fallen.

That was the only sign left to show where the young Miko had been.  She was nowhere to be seen, and with Inuyasha, and Kirara out of commission at the moment, along with Miroku, she didn't stand a chance of finding her dear friend.  Seeing that her friend was gone, she grit her teeth, and despite her injury, proceeded to drag the unconscious hanyou over towards where Miroku was sitting, with Shippo attending to his wounds.

She only hoped that he would awaken soon, so that they could go searching for the missing and dearly loved young onna.

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Dictionary

Baka - Idiot

Chikushou - Damn

Doushite - Why

Fujo - Witch

Hanyou - Half Demon

Hiraikotsu - actually translates as 'Come Flying Skills' and is the name of Sango's boomerang

Houshi - Monk

Inu - Dog

Kazaana - Wind Void/Tunnel - Miroku's curse from Naraku

Kitsune - Fox Demon

Miko - Shrine Maiden

Neko - Cat

Okaa-san - Mother

Onee - Older Sister

Onna - Woman

Sama - Lady or Lord - respectively

Shakoju - Staff - the one that Miroku carries and wields

Shikon no Kakera - Shikon Shards

Shikon no Tama - Jewel of Four Souls

Shishi - Lion

Taijiya - Demon Exterminator

Taiyoukai - Demon Lord

Tenshi - Angel

Tenseiga - Sacred Life Fang

Tetsusaiga - Iron Pulverizing Fang

Youkai - Demon

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