InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Freedom ❯ Seven ( Chapter 7 )

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

Inuyasha cast a worried glance at his brooding companion, and he wished he knew what she was thinking but her expression revealed nothing. She had refused to be carried once she regained consciousness and he rolled his eyes as she stumbled for the seventh time since they took to the road. The stubborn woman wouldn't speak, and he begin sensing that what was haunting her was beyond his control.

Inuyasha sighed as he begun to feel restless, and raked a hand through his hair. He tried to think of something comforting to say to her, but it seemed that everything that came out of his mouth riled her up and he didn't want to get into another screaming match.

How was he supposed to protect her if he didn't know what was wrong? Inuyasha knew that he hadn't done anything spectacular to earn her trust, yet he badly wanted her to trust him.

He watched her back as she went to the river to refill their canteens as she softly promised not to take too long, and a strange foreboding swept over him like an icy wind. He dismissed the feeling and crossed his arms over his chest. Give her some space, she's probably sick of me breathing down her neck.

Once Kagome was finally alone, the truth of what she had done settled heavily upon her. All her life, she had heard whispers and taunts about being cursed and now she had finally believed it.

Kagome stared down at the clear, gurgling brook and wondered if its currents would carry her away as she suppressed a wave of self-loathing. She carefully peeled the top layer of her robe off and hissed at the sight of her wounds as she roughly cleaned herself up and welcomed the sensation of pain over the guilt that had been too heavy a burden.

Kagome sat in a meditative posture, with each breath the pain began to recede as she allowed herself to feel the vortex of rage and sorrow. With practiced ease, she deepened her breaths, delving deeper into her mind and tried to contact the voice. She felt something pulling her, it was as if she was boarding a ship and something was inviting her into the depths of the vessel. A memory came unbidden.

She was facing a horde of demons, and felt a wave of exhaustion that caused her knees to buckle. Her strength was waning, and she knew that she was running out of time. The demons sensing her weakness, swarmed in on her with gleaming teeth as their eyes glittered with hate, their pleasure was cut short, when a blinding light consumed them, and they tried desperately to get away.

It was the sensation of pain that bought her back, as she grasped her chest. She took several deep breaths as she had to untangle herself from the solemn woman in her vision.

"I still don't understand." She whispered fiercely. Kagome remembered the wish that she had made back in the wolves' cave, to find a way out of no way, and she paled when she remembered the strange feeling that had come over her. It was as if she was in a dream state.

On a whim, she raised one hand as if she could summon the power on will. The look of concentration broke on her face and she snorted when nothing happened.

What is happening to me? Have I finally gone mad?

Kagome felt a terrible loneliness take hold of her as she stared at her reflection. For a second, her reflection in the brook moved, but it didn't move in synch with her and she let out a wordless scream. Her reflection smiled back haughtily. You're weak. You're just a walking target and a danger to everyone. Just give up, girl.

She heard her copycat say. In anger she splashed her reflection as a chilling laugh echoed through the meadow.

"No, you're wrong." Something settled in the darkest corner of her heart, filling her resolve like a slow-acting poison. She could not stop trembling and when she looked down at her hands she saw that they were covered in blood.

I couldn't have known. But a smaller part of her had known, just as she knew that her reflection was right. No one was safe as long as she was around. She had something that demons wanted, something that with just an utterance could make friends turn on each other.

She envisioned Inuyasha, and her pulse quickened as she thought about how the brash half demon had breezed into her life. She knew that as long as she stayed with him, that he was in danger. Her heart hardened as she buried her sorrow. Grandfather I will decide my future, and I refuse to be a tool to this wretched thing inside of me.

She turned to the horizon and gathered the forgotten canteens, hoping that Inuyasha would forgive her for taking her time.

"Inuyasha, I'm sorry I.." She paused at the empty field, as she hugged the canteens closer to her chest.

Inuyasha's sword lay on the ground innocently and she rushed to it. Kagome tried to still her racing heart. In the short time that she had known the half demon lord, she had never seen him without his weapon. Maybe he's gone to relieve himself? She tried to convince herself, but the panic had made her heart beat double time in her chest. She gingerly retrieved his sword and in the grass, she saw two crumbled ofuda.

The paper disintegrated at her touch as her face drained of color.

"This is a sealing ward." She was familiar with the charm used on more powerful demons and cast a worried glance at the sky. Tessaiga thrummed, as she cast a curious glance at the sheathed blade.

"You can..talk?" She asked dumfounded, and despite the bleak situation she managed a small smile. At least she wouldn't be completely alone. She took in her surroundings with the advantage of a clear mind, and realized that she had been too absorbed in her grief to pay attention to the shifting landscape.

"These are..." She turned to face the mountainside. "Holy grounds." She slapped her forehead at her stupidity. Inuyasha was in danger. She ran towards the horizon with renewed will.

 

________________________________________________________________

 

Suikotsu dried his hands on a clean linen before he exited the tar paper shack that served as a makeshift monastery. He did the best that he could for the aging priest who had caught a case of the yellow plague that was spreading through the small village.

The young doctor sighed as he looked forward to spending the rest of his evening reading up on medicinal cures, and thought fondly about the ginger root in his small garden that was ripe for harvest. Before he left the priests compound, he paid his respects to a broken-down shrine that was erected for the victims of the plague.

His life moved in purposeful waves that he slowly became used to. The young doctor had originally been on his way to the old country, to leave the unsettling politics of Kyoto behind him when he stumbled upon the Hiyoshi shrine at the foot of Mount Muro. It was there that he met the aged priest, Saicho, who had taken one good look at him and convinced him to stay.

Each morning Suikotsu would trek with the old man and some of the monks down the mountains trails to the coast to fish, or to collect herbs. Somehow without his knowing, he had managed to find spiritual peace on these lands.

He was interrupted from his reflections as a commotion drew a large crowd at the village center and the young doctor made a detour and decided to see what all the fuss was about.

"Good men and women, we bring before you the wretched demon who has been causing turbulence throughout these lands. Who can withstand what these wretched beasts do to us? I will make sure that these demons have no place in these lands!" Two of Saicho's hot headed disciples, Ichirai and Sanno, had caged a demon who was bound with thick ropes and several sealing sutras placed on the outside of the cage.

Suikotsu shook his head as such sights were becoming a common trend with the rise of the yellow plague. There had been more attacks, and more villagers had begun to disappear. It made sense that the monks were starting a genocidal campaign, capturing and killing anything demonic that had the misfortune to wander on these vast lands.

Inuyasha lay immovable, as the damned charms had even robbed him of speech. He gritted his teeth as the stupid monks began talking rubbish, and the villagers, incensed began grabbing rocks and sticks and whatever they could find and chucked them at him. Cowards. He sneered as he cursed himself for being so careless.

"We will imprison the beast and take the gods will in our own hands by purifying these lands of filth." Ichirai's voice was smooth and his cadence measured as the people cheered and Inuyasha was roughly carted off to be imprisoned, as he began making dark promises while he planned his escape.

Suikotsu turned away from the scene and went about his business, when a young boy tugged insistently at his pant leg and he looked down. He recognized the child from a family of 8, two had recently began to show symptoms of sickness, and one young child had already passed away.

"What is it child?"

"Doctor, it's my sister. She wandered into the woods by herself and has not returned. Ma and Pa are too sick to fetch her"

"Don't worry, I'll get her and bring her back safely. Return to your home, the northeast winds have begun to blow and that's never a good sign." He watched as the child ran off, as the lad was slightly spooked by the doctor's omen.

He looked towards the distance, as a dull ache began to pound in his head. Lately his migraines have been getting worse, but he brushed it off as nothing as he walked towards the forest and set his mind on finding the girl.

________________________________________________________________

Kagome stumbled over a tree root and would have fallen if she hadn't grabbed a tree branch, as fatigue began to catch up with her.

She heard soft singing just around the bend, and she staggered as she made her way through an overgrowth of foliage. She shivered as she felt an icy wind pass over her, and when she finally broke free from the vines she encountered a child who was stooped over a field of wild flowers. Kagome breathed in relief as she wondered where the little girl's chaperone was.

"Hey, what are you doing in these woods alone?" She chastised softly, as the child turned, and Kagome felt the blood freeze in her veins. The child's face was grotesque. Her sunken, and hollow cheeks spoke a life of illness and deep anguish. Kagome turned away from the child's yolky eyes rimmed in red.

"Priestess, did you lose your way too?" The child said in a voice barely above a whisper, and Kagome frowned in confusion. That's when she took her time to look, really look as she realized that the outcropping of rocks were poorly constructed graves that stretched quite a distance. Her eyes settled on the girl with understanding, and she smiled in compassion.

"No, I didn't. I'm looking for a friend. That's a pretty bouquet, is it for someone special?"

"My big brother. He told me that I had to be brave, and that everyone was counting on me." The child suddenly broke out into a gap-toothed smile, and the pride and happiness touched her as Kagome smiled back.

"That's wonderful advice, can you tell me about this place?" She asked gently, but the child shifted nervously and averted her gaze.

"I have to go now. Big brother is calling me." The child said softly, and suddenly a gale whipped through the sleepy meadow and Kagome shaded her eyes as she was nearly knocked off her feet. When the wind died down, only the wild flowers lay scattered amongst the graves and she kneeled and gingerly to pluck a dandelion from the ground. She straightened when she felt a spike of yoki brush against her consciousness.

Something slithered in the grass, and she unsheathed Inuyasha's sword, and brandished the untransformed fang as she backed away slowly.

"Show yourself." She goaded. Suddenly, yellow eyes flashed, and a scaled yokai raised its head and sprang itself towards her with grisly fangs.

Kagome didn't have time to run, and she knew that she had to keep her wits about her. With lightning speed, the demon struck and before she could defend herself it sunk its teeth in her shoulder and she cried out in agony as she rolled on the ground as the demon injected venom in the wound. A sharp shooting sensation spilled down her shoulder, as she got to her feet.

"I won't go down so easily." She hissed as she lifted tessaiga and brought the blade down like a hammer and impaled the beast. She blinked the black spots from her vision and hoped she was going to be alright as she staggered to her feet.

A shadow fell across her, and she weakly held the rusted blade up to defend herself.

"Are you okay?" She blinked at the handsome young man, who wrapped a hand around her shoulder as she swayed unsteadily on her feet. He looked at her dazed expression, and inspected her wound. Poison.

"You must come with me at once, I'm a doctor and I can help treat your wounds." She nodded mutely, and he supported her with an arm around her shoulder. Something brushed against his consciousness and Suikotsu turned and looked beyond the dead carcass and into the rolling sleepy meadow as a wave of nausea hit him.

He cried out as his headache returned full force, and he nearly toppled over the woman as his vision swam.

"Are you alright?" Kagome said in alarm as the doctor looked like he just saw a ghost.

Suikotsu's eyes were fixed on the graves and in an instant, he saw the faces of the deceased looking at him with angry accusation. Kagome slapped the doctor's cheeks twice, as he came back to reality and looked down at her with a stunned expression.

"Snap out of it!" She ordered.

"T-Thank you." He said after a moment of silence, and he was unsure whether to thank the woman or balk at her.

They made it back to his hut in one peace.

The doctor busied himself on the woman as he began to break out in a cold sweat. She had dozed off after he gave her something for the pain and to make it easier for him to treat her. Suikotsu heard a voice slice tersely into his consciousness as he stilled from the command. Kill her.

He felt both hands encircling her throat, and for a second, his hands protruded into claws. The doctor shouted with fright.

"No!" He backed away from his patient. After several moments, only his laborious breathing fills the hut, and he gave himself a good shake. This wasn't the time to lose it, he mentally chided himself even as his hands trembled. With precision, he worked tirelessly to treat and cauterize the wound.

She was lucky that the breed of snake yokai that attacked her was common enough around these parts that he had an antidote on hand. He was curious about the collection of battle scars that lined her body. She would've been a beauty, the young doctor thought whimsically.

When he was done, the sun had already begun to set. He reached in his cabinet for his special brew of rice liquor and began to drink liberally from a bamboo flask. It was the only cure that seemed to work for his condition, and made the impulses to bring harm to others slowly ebb away.

He whirled around in a stupor when he felt something watching him and with deadened eyes, he looked in confusion at the young woman who was still sleeping off the drugs he gave her. For a split second his vision blurred and, when he blinked her faced morphed into the visage of one of his former patients claimed by the plague, and her eyes glared with the same angry accusations of the dead

"N-no." He began to shake and tremble, finally breaking down in tortured sobs.

Kagome winced, and squinted at the blubbering doctor as her head pulsed.

"Do you mind keeping it down?" She rubbed her temples, and felt lightheaded as the pain-relieving herbs he gave her began to wear off.

He drunkenly got to his feet, and to her utter embarrassment he kneeled prostate in front of her, as she began to grow uneasy.

"Tsuki, please forgive me. I was too incompetent to save you." The doctor groveled at her feet, and she rolled her eyes skyward as she smelled the reek of alcohol on his breath. Kagome eyed her robe and with clenched teeth, she shrugged it on.

She needed to see Inuyasha. That gave her a burst of strength, as she grabbed tessaiga laying by her side and used it as a crutch to stand.

"Look pal, I'm not your Tsuki." She began, but suddenly a plan began to form, and she wondered if the doctor was drunk enough for her to use his guilt to her advantage. "But you have wronged me, and I have come back from the grave to exact my revenge." The young doctor began to sob in earnest.

"I didn't mean to. I never meant to." She did roll her eyes this time.

"I'll forgive you. But you must do one thing for me."

He seemed to sober up, as he hugged her feet.

"Anything, I'll do anything."

"Take me to where the demons are being held."

He drunkenly acquiesced and they journeyed through the thick of night to the foot of Mount Moro.