InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Freedom ❯ One ( Chapter 1 )

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

 

Inuyasha stood on the outskirts of the abandoned village. He cast a worried glance at the midday sun as he felt his yoki began to fade and cursed his weak human blood. The new moon was approaching, and his instincts warned him that he should probably return to his camp and stay low for the night.

Instead of following his gut, he made his way carefully through the village and repressed a suspicious growl as he paused at the paddy rice fields where several upturned carts lay amidst broken farmers tools cast idly aside. It was as if the inhabitants were in the middle of going about their daily routines in one moment, and in the next moment they all got up in a mass exodus and left. At least, that’s what his nose told him.  His ears perked up at the faint sound of carrion crows cawing hungrily and gathering for a feast in the distance, and his lip curled in disgust.

I smell trouble. His mind raced, and he sprinted towards the shore while keeping a tight grip on tessaiga. The stench hit him first nearly causing him to double over as he covered his nose and mouth with the voluminous sleeve of his robe. The pesky carrion crows were tearing into the carcass of a slayed oni with gusto, and Inuyasha had to bite his bottom lip to force down bile.

What he saw next caused his spine to stiffen, as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief but when he lowered his hands he saw a human woman who was crucified to a crude wooden post.  What in the fifth hells? Inuyasha furrowed his brows in consternation, he had heard strange tales about human sacrifices but never had the luxury to witness one firsthand.

His nose told him that she was still alive, her hands and feet were bound together, and she wore the formal attire of a priestess. He wondered how she had survived the attack of an oni and every other demon in the vicinity. She was unconscious, and he could smell by the sour odor of her blood that she was seriously injured.

“Hey, sleeping beauty, are you alive?” He tried to gently wake her and raised a cautious hand and tried to untie the ropes binding her arms and legs. Instead he came up against a barrier and got the shock of his life as the force of the holy barrier sent him reeling back 50 yards.

“Son of a bitch!” He cursed more out of shock as pain lanced through his side causing his vision to blur so much so that he had to use his sword to help him stand. Once the shock wore off, he slowly got to his feet, spat a wad of blood and swiped angrily at his mouth.

Something was amiss, and he didn’t like it one bit. If he had half a brain, Inuyasha probably would’ve left the woman to whatever fate the gods had decided for her and took his ass back to patrolling his father’s lands. But his weak human blood had him rooted to the spot, and he knew that he couldn’t leave a defenseless woman to fend for herself.

He snapped out of his dark musings as he sensed a spike of malicious yoki coming from the sea, as the waves grew larger and crashed ominously against the shore. His hackles rose, and he readied his sword as the waters gurgled violently. Inuyasha stood to his full height and let out a warning growl as an ugly serpentine demon rose from the depths of the sea.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.” He muttered to himself.

The demons red eyes glowered hungrily as its eyes locked on the helpless woman. It had eight-forked heads and a forked tail, with the mass of its slimy body covered in moss, and with more speed than the half demon would give the creature credit for, the serpent sprung straight for its prey.

 “Not so fast ugly.” Inuyasha landed in its path, intercepting the gaping maws intended to swallow the woman whole, barrier be damned.  The demon bit down on tessaiga instead, while its several other snapping heads hissed and lunged at the half demon. Cursing blackly, Inuyasha was forced to free his sword and retreat in defense, as he sized up his enemy.

“Out of the way half breed! Don’t you know that I, Orochi, am the ruler of these seas? And from your stench you are the son of that wretched Dog, are you not?  Forfeit your hand and leave my lands and I will spare your life.” The demon rasped with a heightened sense of self-importance that made Inuyasha scoff in disgust. He was surprised that this demon knew who he was given the barrenness of these lands.

“You sure do talk a lot for a sea worm,” Inuyasha chuckled dryly, and hefted his sword on his shoulder with confidence. “I didn’t know vermin went around calling themselves lords of the sea, you can fool the humans, but you won’t fool me. Whatever business you have with this woman, you’ll settle it with me.” He didn’t care if the humans occupying the abandoned village had meant to sacrifice the wench to this youkai. If it was one thing that Inuyasha hated, it was the unwarranted slaughtering of women and children and there was no negotiating around that.

“I will make you suffer, insolent brat! and then I will delight in that wretched human even more.” The demon wasted no more time and charged with all eight heads spitting venom at the smug half demon. Tessaiga pulsed as an unfamiliar blue light enveloped the sword, and Inuyasha looked down at the blade for a split second before he narrowly dodged a shower of venom that melted the ground. Huh? What is it? His nose picked up a shift in the winds scent, as his instincts told him to strike now.

He lifted the glowing sword above his head, and with a grunt brought the blade down and unleashed a whirlwind of energy that engulfed Orochi in a blinding light as the demons enraged screams pierced the darkening sky. Chunks of the demon’s carcass rained down on him and he grimaced where a splay of the serpent’s blood soaked his robes and got into his hair.

“What the hell was that?” He flickered Orochi’s blood of his blade and squinted at the blade that gleamed innocently. In all the years that he had wielded his father’s fang, it had never done that. He huffed impatiently and filed the new information away in his memory and resolved to harangue the wizened swordsmith who had forged the blade.

Slowly, he turned to the woman. Somehow, I feel like this is all her fault. What was supposed to be a simple border patrol was turning out to be a pain in the ass. He didn’t have time for mysteries or playing hero. He needed to get back to securing the borders and making sure that his late father’s allies were still loyal, especially with the threat of war looming on the horizon with the belligerent human lords.

Come on tessaiga I need your help. The sooner I’m done with this mess, the better I’ll feel. The sword acquiesced as a faint red glow engulfed the mighty fang and he sliced through the priestess’s barrier with ease.

He flexed his claws and made quick work of the ropes binding her hands and feet as he wrinkled his nose at the stink of festering wounds. She won’t survive with these injuries, she needs a healer.

He understood now that the barrier was probably the woman’s last resort to protect herself from swarms of blood thirsty demons, and despite his irritation he was impressed as he slowly took in the multitudes of demon carcasses that littered the rocky plateau. He brushed her cheek noting the deathly pallor of her skin and tapped her roughly. Come on, don’t die on me.

He repeated the rough treatment until she groaned softly, and suddenly without any warning, violent spasms racked her whole body as she shot up in pain and fright. He gripped her harder to stop her from injuring herself, as the woman began thrashing as her fight or flight response kicked in and he felt helpless to alleviate her distress.

He tensed as he felt a spark of her spiritual powers brush up against his yoki, but the woman was too weak to defend herself and he let out a breath that he didn’t realize he had been holding in.

For a brief second, she opened her glassy eyes and looked right through him causing him to freeze as a look of pure terror wrapped her countenance and a string of words passed from her lips.

“Please…don’t hurt them.” She managed to rasp out as she gripped the front of his robes. He furrowed his brows at the quiet desperation in her voice as his mind begin to sluggishly connect the dots. Could she be talking about the inhabitants of this village?

 “Relax, I’m not going to hurt anyone.” Something in his voice must’ve quieted her fight or flight response because in the next moment the spasms were over, and she slumped unconscious in his arms. He inhaled shallowly through his nose, and exhaled in relief.

 Inuyasha looked pensively at the sky as he felt his demon blood slowly receding. Carefully, he hefted the woman bridal style noticing that she barely weighed anything. I still don’t like this one bit. His mind whispered as he began trekking in the opposite direction of his camp. He still had a couple of hours of daylight left and he knew that he would get answers sooner or later.

 

 

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 Jinenji swept the veranda clean of the broken debris that the guest had left in their haste to get away from him and tried his best not to internalize the reoccurring thought that there was something irrevocably wrong with him or that the whole ordeal was somehow his fault.

After the accident, when their farm had burned, Ma decided that to keep a roof over their heads they would have to make some sacrifices which resulted in Jinenji laboriously refashioning their humble abode into a guest lodge.

Business was slow, but on nights like this where the winter chill took stray travelers by surprise they would get a trickle of desperate couples or worn-down journeymen who couldn’t afford the more luxurious inns at the village center. They would be content to have a hot meal and a bed for the night until he made his presence known to attend to their needs in his earnest attempt to be a good host.

One good look at his equine like face paired with his hulking muscular stature would cause them to go taking off into the night no matter how dangerous it was for travelers in these necks of the woods.

Sighing in defeat, the towering half demon paused to mourn the shattered antique teapot that a frightened woman tried to break over his head when he tried to politely let her know that the bathhouse would be closed for the night.

 He felt that it would be better off if he didn’t show his face. His ears perked up at the sound of an approaching visitor, and he paused at the familiar yoki, although it was faint.

“Ma, I think we have another guest.”

An old woman came out, smoking a silver pipe and her eyes squinted in the darkness and widened a fraction in recognition as she caught a glimpse of a flash of red and the familiar princely robes. She gave her son a toothy smile.

“Why if it isn’t Lord Inu no Taisho’s brat, I wonder what he’s doing so far out in the country? Boy, go air out the guest beds and put some tea on. That brat doesn’t show his hide around these parts unless he’s battered and banged up. I suspect he’s gotten himself in trouble.” Jinenji sulked back into their home, as he left his mother to smoke her pipe and greet their guest for the late evening.

Inuyasha advanced carefully down the rocky landscape, and tried his best not to jostle the woman in his arms. It had taken all his strength to maneuver them through the dense dead woods and all his senses to steer them away from trouble.  He wore a grim expression as he made his way to the crones hut and her half demon brood.

The old woman was already on the veranda when he arrived, wearing a smug expression. She quirked a brow at the human woman draped in his fire rat robe, and she didn’t need the light from a lamp to see that the woman was deathly ill.

“Old woman, I need you to heal her.”

“Hmph. Is that anyway to greet an old woman? After all this time, and you’re still a rude punk.” Ma blew a cloud of smoke in the dog hanyou’s direction, and watched in fascination as the young man’s half demon features retracted and the billowy white hair turned midnight black. Fatigued golden eyes darkened to a pensive violet, and the growl emitting from the half demon no longer carried a menacing bite.

“You travelled on the night of the new moon?” A frown creased her brow as she wondered what the woman in his arms meant to him. For all the years that she had known the young lord, she knew that he never exposed himself on his most vulnerable nights.

He did something that he normally would never do, but he was desperate, and time was of the essence. The woman’s breathing was shallow, he took a risk in bringing her here, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to heal her on his own and the old woman and her son were healers of reputable standing. Slowly, he got to his knees and bowed his head.

“Please. She needs you.” He begged earnestly, and Ma looked incredulously at the bowing half demon prince, and pinched her cheek to make sure that she wasn’t imagining things.

“She must be special if you’re kneeling like a commoner and asking me,” Ma mused cryptically, as she shook her head in disbelief, “Come now child, Jinenji has fixed dinner tonight and you both look worse for wear.” He followed her into the house and followed her instructions to lay the woman on the clean bedding while Jinenji went to the back of the hut to gather some herbs so that Ma could brew a poultice.

“Friend of yours?” Ma asked with a conversational tone, as she poured the hanyou turned human a cup of tea while she tried her best not to pry into the young lord’s affairs. Inuyasha crossed his arms over his chest as he averted his gaze.

“Not even close. More like a casualty in some strange human sacrifice. She was tied to a stake in an abandoned human settlement. I couldn’t leave her.” He surprised himself on how much he chose to divulge.

“Poor thing. There’s still a lot of stupid gits around here that are superstitious enough to murder their own kin over foolishness. It’s a shame, but you’ll be surprised how common it is. Why, just the other day one of the village women was telling me about her distant cousin who was to be sacrificed to Inari because of a bad crop. A bunch of idiots I tell you! But war and suffering does that to people. Makes us afraid of our own shadows.” Ma sighed deeply as she fed some tinder to the fire and then scooted closer to the strange woman, gingerly brushing a tangle of hair out of the priestess’s face.

“She’s certainly beautiful, she reminds me of a bit of myself when I was her age.” Ma smiled as she remembered herself at the prime of her youth, and felt a familiar warmth warm her old bones as she rolled up her sleeves and prepared herself to clean the woman’s wounds.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, and for once he didn’t have the energy to come up with a snide retort. He had planned to leave her here, but fatigue settled in his bones and his stomach rumbled in protest.

“Jinenji made some fine rabbit stew, you’re a capable boy so you can help yourself.” She waved towards the far corner of the room where there was a pot of something that smelled delicious set aside, causing his mouth to water.

“Old woman, has the headman of your village received any refuges in the last couple of days?”

“That old git? No, in these days that fool has been too afraid to take in anymore casualties from the neighboring villages. We haven’t received any refugees in a while, they all probably went to the northern provinces since there’s more security. Though I haven’t heard anything from the grapevine from our neighboring towns. Why do you ask?”

“That’s strange. I found a village and there was not a trace of anyone. I even tried tracking them on foot and lost the scent trail half way. I figured that there was an attack, something that would’ve caused panic. But it just seems like they upped and vanished.” Inuyasha offered as he filled his bowl with another hefty serving of the delicious stew and dug in with gusto.

“Strange indeed. Jinenji and I have been receiving the bulk of strangers since the price of goods were driven up everywhere else. We haven’t seen anything unusual for the last couple of days either.” She paused, and rewet her cloth in the basin filled with water and with deft hands she unfastened the closures of the woman’s robes, while taking inventory on the herbs that she would have to use. At the mention of the other half demon, Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably.

“Is he settling down okay in these parts?” Ma raised a sharp eyebrow at the young lord’s casual inquiry. She hadn’t thought the half demon prince had cared about her boy.

“I’m afraid not. Moving closer to the southern border seemed like a good idea in theory. I knew that it would be safer, the locals don’t trouble us much, but it’s been hard keeping afloat. We haven’t managed to get much business because all the travelers get one good look at my sweet Jinenji and hightail it out of here.”

 “Feh. Humans are like that. That doesn’t surprise me.” Inuyasha frowned as he set his bowl aside, and scooted back against the wall.

“You know, you should visit us more. Jinenji misses you and he could really use the company.” Ma began lightly.

“Duty calls.”  Inuyasha interrupted quickly, sensing that the old bat would try to guilt trip him. She made a noncommittal sound, choosing to let him off the hook.

Ma paused and regarded her handiwork, pursing her lips. “I’m going to need to open this wound, the poor girl looks like she’s been dragged from hell and back. I wonder what this girls story is?” Ma mused softly, before beckoning Inuyasha over.

“Hold her down, this isn’t going to be pleasant.” Cautiously Inuyasha complied, he stared at the woman’s face free of blood and acting on their own accord his eyes trailed down her body as he appraised her soft curves. He caught himself as his eyes lingered a little too long, and he gritted his teeth. This is not the time to be checking her out.

Ma heated up the knife until it glowed red and she got her needle and thread ready. She took a deep breath and nodded once to the demon lord who held the woman’s shoulders down as she pressed the hot blade on a ghastly wound at the priestess’s left ribcage.

On cue, the woman shot up as the knife contacted her skin, and Inuyasha clenched his jaw at the pained sobs that wracked her body. A memory came to him unbidden, it was one of his early childhood memories when his mother was alive. She had fallen sick after a torrential storm and was too weak to travel to the village healer, so she had instructed him on how to make a putrid tea that had been passed down from his mother’s line.  

He caught himself brushing the woman’s hair, like he would brush his mother’s hair when she was bedridden and as soon as he realized what he was doing he recoiled as if he was burned.

 “What are you sniveling about? She’s a tough girl, she’ll live.” Ma stuck her head outside of the small room and hollered for her son. “Jinenji, where are you with those herbs? Come on boy, we don’t have all night.”

“I don’t snivel.” Inuyasha flushed in embarrassment but Ma waved at him in a bemused fashion.

Slowly, the lumbering half demon made his way to the room with a satchel of herbs. Shyly, he bowed to acknowledge Inuyasha, who was still holding the woman whose features were pinched, and her laborious breathing filled the hut.

“Sorry Ma, I couldn’t find your mortar, so I had to grind everything by hand. I also needed some Milk Thistle and had to go foraging.”

“Foolish boy! I told you never to go into the woods by yourself, you could’ve been hurt.” The old woman shook her head in dismay, as her protectiveness kicked in and she took the proffered satchel and begin to create a thick paste as her son seemed to sag under her rebukes.

“Well, she’s stronger than she looks. Our mystery woman had mortal wounds that would have killed an ordinary human.” Ma chuckled dryly, and brought her attention on the task at hand as she began to apply the salve on her patient.

“Thank you.” Inuyasha bowed his head, and Ma hooted loudly startling him.

“Why if only Izayoi could see you now.” She grinned cheekily, and he flushed at the mention of his late mother.

“She would be proud you know, proud that her son has chosen to follow the path of his father.” Ma offered as she wrapped the last of the bandages and applied the last of the salve. Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably at the mention of his late parents. He gently removed himself from the woman’s side, relieved that she had fallen asleep.

 “Yeah, if you say so.” He wasn’t really in a reminiscent spirit, and felt that it was time for him to retire for the night. He would figure out what to do with the woman in the morning.