InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Forty-Two: Tried ( Chapter 43 )

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

A/N: I twisted up some more of the anime, introducing Sarena and Sazuna, sister assassins for those who have forgotten (that particular episode is one of my personal favs), and I need to define the name of "Kumiko", which means "eternal beautiful child" for some idle humor included in this chappie. Sorry, folks, Sessy is still refusing to make an appearance yet...that Taiyoukai believes in being fashionably late (grrr). Thanks for the continued reviews and support! All ideas encouraged. Fairia, thanks for inspiration, hugs Kilala81 for the recommendation (again) on S'Spark (one of the best fics is her continued four part "Secrets of the Shinju"), and Jazngurl, my attack is being mounted for Japanese translation (thanks!).

WARNING: Battle scene, dark imagery.

Chapter Forty-Two (Tried)

"Koga! Koooogaaaah!"

A wolf howled lustily in reply, betraying his location.

*Damn it all.* Dark brows came down in a sharp vee to accompany the icy glare out of light blue eyes that narrowed on the culprit, who crouched under the dark scowl and whined.

"Koga!!!"

*Damn.* "WHAT?" He roared, startling the birds out of the nearby brush with the volume and irritation he could put in one single bellow.

A white-spiked head popped out from behind a tree, and Hakkaku's face split into a wide, toothy grin at having found him.

"Hiya, Koga." He said way too damn cheerfully.

Koga sent him a dark look, and deliberately closed his eyes again. Stupid wolves were always interrupting his nap-time...

He tried to ignore the wolf-brother's scuffing footsteps, he really tried. But Hakkaku had as much stealth---or lack of it---as a raging boar crashing through the forest. He growled, and one of his wolves whined at him, confused.

*Damn it all.*

"Koga?"

Why couldn't they leave him ALONE for ONE gods-be-damned MOMENT?

There was a nervous pawing at the dirt, and he knew it wasn't a wolf, but a wolf-brother. That stupid youkai was now blocking the warmth of the sun, his shadow falling over his leader, who had been lazily wiling away a few hours snoozing in the grass with some furry companions.

Forcing his eyes back open, the irritated scowl grew darker as Koga realized that it wasn't only Hakkaku who stood over him, but half-a-dozen wolf-brothers, all anxious and staring. Flashing fangs, he jumped up, scaring them all back, four-pawed wolfish companions scrambling in retreat with yips and yelps at the sudden movement.

Blue eyes spitting, he yelled between gritted teeth. "WHAT?"

They all looked at each other nervously, and it was Hakkaku who got elbowed forward to face his wrath. The other cowards stepped back, out of the reach of flying fists of irritation.

Hakkaku gulped.

"Uh..."

"What...is...IT?" Koga was really growling now.

"Um..."

The dark vee was back between icy blue eyes and Hakkaku finally spit it out in a rush that left Koga more irritated than before.

"Katashi-from-the-north-is-here-with-his-tribe-and-wa...wants-- -demands---t...to-see-you."

*Demands?*

His expression must have said a lot, because Hakkaku ducked, and with singular mental agreement, the whole damn cowardly lot of them high-tailed it out of there, leaving their leader snarling furiously behind them.

Even the small pack of wolves who had been taking their ease and napping in the sunshine with him were gone.

"DAMN IT ALL!"

*~*~*~*~*

She had really hoped to make it through breakfast this time, she really did. But it was the eels that did it. Cooked in their own juice and swimming in a light sauce, served by a beaming old peasant woman with a hatchet face and hooked nose under the last wisps of receding grey hair, who kept bowing like a bobbing beach-ball floating in choppy waves because her old knees wouldn't bend too far.

Maybe it was the bobbing that first gave her stomach the idea to start bouncing on its own. But it was definitely the smell of those eels, so lovingly cooked and swimming around all over each other, that finally did it.

Turning pale, Kagome barely made it out of the hut in time.

She had left them there to stare after her, and it was Koharu who hastily took up the dish from the old woman's stunned hands. Kaede made the apologies, while Shippo and Miroku exchanged concerned looks over Kagome's abrupt departure.

The old woman was bobbing her forgiveness to Kaede when Koharu suddenly froze, growing pale, and dropped the contents of the gift on the floor with a splash and clatter of the wooden bowl hitting the floor. They all sat back in shock as the girl whirled around and beat a hasty retreat out of the hut, after Kagome.

Kaede stared at Miroku, who, quite frankly, sat with his mouth wide open like a gaping fish. Narrowing her eye, she made a wry apology to the old peasant woman, who just mumbled toothlessly and bobbed again. As the old woman left, it was Shippo who oh-so-helpfully returned her bowl.

Snatching it, the old woman scuttled out, ripe with scandalized gossip to spread over the village.

"Miroku." Kaede said, her black eye aimed like a hawk's on the stunned monk.

"Um..." Miroku flushed, not wanting to meet the old miko's gaze.

"We must talk." The priestess said rather too calmly, motioning for him to proceed her outside, and quickly.

Rings jangled on the long end of his staff, and the monk stepped out smartly, the gnarled priestess following after. Shippo sat on his furry haunches, looking around the disturbed meal with wide green eyes.

*Why'd everybody go?*

*~*~*~*~*

"Water." Kagome croaked.

"Mmph." Koharu handed over the cask. Ignoring the wooden dipper that hung from a thong on the side of the panikan, Kagome lifted the vessel and drank like a sailor, water rivulets running down her cheeks.

Koharu sat back on her knees, blinking in surprise at the usually ladylike girl's guzzling. Kagome even looked a bit disappointed when she realized the cask was empty. Putting it down, the older girl wiped the droplets from her chin, sighing disconsolately.

"Kagome?" Koharu asked uncertainly. In her memory, Kagome had never acted like THIS.

Hiccup.

"Ooh." A small hand covered her mouth and Kagome blushed furiously. Koharu giggled, an infectious giggle that made Kagome join in. Both were smiling, their embarrassment forgotten as they stared at each other with warm brown eyes.

"I wonder if old Kumiko will get over it." Koharu said, laughing as she recalled the old woman's shocked expression.

Kagome chortled. "Kumiko? That's her name?"

Koharu had a wide smile, and it was adorable when she used it. "I know. Funny, isn't it? But I guess a mother doesn't think her child will ever grow old and...um...not pretty."

Kagome flushed, reminded of her own forthcoming child. She touched her growing abdomen with trepidation. Would she think her child would be forever beautiful?

*Of course, dummy.* She chided herself.

Would the father?

She ignored that thought, putting it neatly aside.

Koharu's hands were also covering her stomach, trailing softly over the flat curve Kagome envied. She shouldn't be so jealous of the younger girl, but she felt like she was getting TOO fat. And she shouldn't be gaining this much weight this early, really she shouldn't. But she couldn't seem to stop eating...well, except at breakfast.

She was suddenly starving, and her stomach growled in complaint.

Koharu blinked at the noise. "You aren't hungry, are you?"

Kagome blushed. It was almost a joke among the villagers just how much she was eating. But Kaede didn't seem at all worried. The old miko was pretty stoic about it, advising her that all women were different and that fretting over it was bad for the baby.

*She doesn't have to worry. She's not the one pregnant.* Kagome grumbled to herself, and then felt immediately remorseful. *I'm being a real grouch. Kaede, all of them, have been so nice and helpful and kind.*

The villagers, who had always seemed so nice but so, well, seperate, had opened their arms and supported her in so many ways that shocked and surprised her. There were nightly discussions (and arguments) over multiple dinner-tables about what name the boy---for she was carrying a boy, that was a given fact, as one older woman had explained: "You still have a beautiful face. If you were ugly, then that means you would have given your girl-child your beauty, because that is tradition. But as you are still pretty, child, that means you are carrying a son, who has no use for your pretty face."---should be called. Every day, some woman or another was coming with gifts and food to give the "expectant mother". Kagome appreciated it, really she did, but she was a bit overwhelmed by it all.

*Don't they know I'm carrying a---*

Well...she didn't know what she carried. There was some doubt on that. Kagome had assumed that she would have a hanyou, she was, in fact, a human girl, whatever powers she might have, and the father...well, the father was a youkai. So...logic assumed that her baby would be a hanyou like InuYasha.

Right?

But Kaede had some doubts. She was concerned that Kagome was a miko, and that there might be something to make the baby, well...not hanyou. Maybe the baby would be born a full youkai.

Her stomach rumbled again, demanding food, and NOW.

Letting her worries go---really, Kaede was right, she shouldn't be upsetting the baby---she stood up slowly. The daily ritual of her morning nausea had cleared off, and she was ravenous.

She could really go for a hamburger from WacDonald's right now. A nice, big, juicy hamburger with lots of sauce and cheese and greasy fries...

*Kami! I MUST be carrying a boy.*

Mournfully, she thought about the miso soup and boiled egg that waited for her back at the hut. Kaede insisted that she eat eggs---it would give the baby wisdom, and besides, it was healthy for her. Oh, and the steamed vegetables. Ugh. Normally, she liked vegetables. But Kaede was really strict when it came to vegetables. The old miko must have a huge stock of them, because they appeared at every meal, and were often pressed on her as snacks.

"Come on, Koharu." She said, stomach still making a scene. "Let's go see if Miroku and Shippo have left us anything."

Koharu giggled, and jumped to her feet. Kagome envied the lithe movement. She didn't seem to be moving so gracefully these days.

"You know, Kagome, the villagers ARE being nice and supportive, bringing us food and all." Koharu said.

Her sense of humor returning, Kagome replied with a mischievous smile, "Let's just hope, though, that they don't bring any more eels."

Koharu giggled, and, impetuously, Kagome took the younger girl's hand. Koharu gave her a shy smile, and squeezed it with complete understanding.

*~*~*~*~*

*There's too many of them!*

Sango dove under the striking claws that reached for her throat. Bringing up Hiraikotsu, she beat back her exhaustion and ignored the pain of leaden limbs and tingling hands as she swung the heavy weapon back at the roaring monster.

The towering youkai, one horn springing up from its bulging forehead, bellowed as the powerful boomerang chopped it in two through the gut. Another youkai feinted to her left, its powerful tail with the barbed end striking quick as a snake, hoping to throw her off balance long enough to get past her guard.

Calculating to the second, Sango waited and then jumped straight up, whipping her legs out of danger's path. The youkai roared its discontent and reached for her with curving claws.

Ducking aside, the battling taijiya swung Hiraikotsu at the menacing demon, and barely caught the attack of a second one, a flying skull, who dove at her head. Using Hiraikotsu as a shield, she plowed into the first demon, and used the boned weapon as a leverage to arch over him and strike the flying skull with the deadly precision of her right foot. The skull split under the aimed impact and fell aside.

Screaming her triumph, Sango finished her arc and landed away from the first demon on the balls of her feet. She could hear Kirara snarling defiance behind her, and the higher-pitched voice of Sarena, who was defending her sister Sazuna. The sisters, her so-called "apprentices", had summoned the horde of demons down on them by stealing the remains of various demons from the village workshop. Those bones and pieces of hide, taken from slain youkai by the slayers who killed them, had not been exorcized yet, and once out of the safety of the shielding village, their evil aura had attracted hundreds of other demons to their side.

"Sarena!" Sazuna's shrill scream and Kirara's yowl distracted Sango for the merest second, but it was just enough time for a roaring youkai, lightly green in color and horned as his brother, to strike across her unprotected side. Her reflexes were quick, and she was able to bring Hiraikotsu down long enough to knock his tearing claws aside. The fabric of her slayer armor was tightly woven with demon scales, but the youkai's claws dripped acid, and bit through a part of the fabric and into her skin.

Gritting her teeth, she bit back a fierce cry as the pain stabbed through her, just above her ribs and under her breasts. Her left leg was already twisting out to strike the nasty green-horn in the side even as Hiraikotsu whirled up from defense and wiped the grinning smile off its face. Horn and head sailed through the air, neatly lobbed off by the clean sweep of her powerful weapon.

The second youkai screamed a challenge, and Sango pivoted on her heel, bringing Hiraikotsu to bear. The demon hissed at her, its fetid breath washing over her unprotected face. She had no time to don her protective mask, she could not resort to her poison powder. Even if she were protected, the two sister-assassins were not.

Her father's spirit seemed close to her, and she wondered---even as she dodged and swung at rending claws and screaming youkai---if he was there, guiding her as he always had.

*I want you to live strong.*

Strong.

She had realized, suddenly, as the attacking cloud of youkai had come streaming over the darkened sky, that her father, that Sarena's and Sazuna's father, had not only meant that they should stay strong physically, but that they should stay strong inside as well. She had managed to tell the girls her sudden realization of it...

"Be strong INSIDE. Be happy!"

The howling demons had then attacked, and before she knew it, she was battling for her life.

Diving underneath another three-fingered grab for her throat, Sango forced her arms and legs to work just a bit more. The harsh breath that filled her lungs and gasped out---she was too exhausted to keep up the trained breathing she had been taught---was also gasping out her father's words....

"Be strong...be strong..."

Swinging Hiraikotsu, she shied away from another diving skull and flinched at the yowl and roar of the neko behind her.

*I will be strong, Father.*

If she lived that long...

*~*~*~*~*

He could sense them straight ahead.

*This is close to the slayers' village!*

The Tetsusaiga throbbed at his hip. White claws grasped the hilt in one hand as he drew the blade, the fang flaring to life even as he pulled it from the sheath. The Jewel shard in his left palm flared once more in answer, and then died, its job done. Pushing the silent gem hastily into his flapping right sleeve, he gripped the hilt of Tetsusaiga with both hands, amber eyes glowing as he sought to descend.

Under the foul stench of mindless youkai, he could detect the faint scent of a neko and...

"Hiraikotsu!"

*Sango.*

The hot rage of battle swept over him, and he snarled at the cloud of youkai who seperated him from the taijiya. He could sense other mortals, though the harsh scent of the embattled slayer was stronger to his seeking. Ears flattening against his skull, he lifted the Tetsusaiga over his head, the fang's heaviness forgotten in the heat of battle.

*THERE!*

White swirling winds encircled the arched blade of his father's fang, calling the Wind Scar even before he could align the demonic auras and pinpoint the flashing brilliance of where the demon winds collided. He pushed his astonishment aside and roared his summoning even as he swept the blade down toward the ground that was fast approaching him.

"WIND SCAR!"

White lines of fire flared out from the powerful blade, snapping to life and obliterating everything in their path. The screams of hundreds of demons were cut of in an instant, as the blazing white inferno silenced them forever. Ashes were swept clean by the second flare that accompanied the first, dampening the howling flames of power.

Kirara, gripping a strange girl in her teeth, another sitting precariously on her back, had shied away from those piercing lances of fire, the fiery orange flames on her black-tipped paws dull in comparison to the searing brilliance of the Wind Scar's blaze. As the last shudder of Tetsusaiga's blast ran through the long sword and it thudded to stillness on the ground, InuYasha's eyes lighted on Sango, who had ducked under the protection of her giant boomerang.

As the white lines of fire diminished and died, InuYasha could make out Sango's expression. Her eyes lighted on him, and there was a happiness there he never thought to see again.

"InuYasha!"

Was she...could she...be happy to see HIM?

No. She was just glad he had come and saved them all.

Again.

Plastering a smug look on his face, he tried---he really did---to heft Tetsusaiga back up and rest the curved blade on his shoulder in a cocky stance he had often assumed in the past. But Tetsusaiga suddenly remembered that it was damn heavy right now, and chose that precise moment to let him know it.

Thud.

"OW!"

His back arched under the dragging weight of the sword, who had slipped off his shoulder and dug deep into the earth behind him. Grasping it with both hands, he struggled for a moment, looking damn ridiculous with his arms bent back over his head and his feet scrabbling for a hold on the ground, and then let go to glower at the stupid sword.

Tetsusaiga immediately dissolved into the rusted blade that hid its power.

Disgusted, his fisted claws came to rest on his hips and he glared at the damn fang.

"InuYasha?"

*Damn it, anyway!*

With a jerk, he pulled the lighter blade from the earth. Scowling, he sheathed the rusty traitor and turned back toward the three ningen and neko youkai who stared at him. Crossing his arms, his amber eyes lighted on the strange girls hanging all over Kirara, who had settled gently to the earth.

"Who the hell are you?"

The one on the neko's back drew herself up and returned his glare with one of her own, her dark eyes assessing him even as her mouth quirked up in one corner. The freckles stood out on her white face, and her short, yellow kimono looked pale with dark splashes of leafy branches sweeping the fabric.

"I'm Sazuna." She said smartly. "And that's Sarena." She nodded to the girl held by the back of her dark blue kimono in Kirara's mouth.

The older girl, definitely the first's---Sazuna's---sister, blushed furiously as the neko carefully lowered her to the burnt ground. Sprawling on her side, the older girl readjusted her grip on the wooden haft of her short axe, her sweaty palms leaving imprints on the smooth wood.

Sango limped forward, using Hiraikotsu as a prop to lean against. InuYasha's nostrils flared as he detected the sharp metallic scent of blood---on Sango.

"Sango? You're hurt." He said, eyes narrowing on her.

"It's nothing." She waved his concern aside, and he fell back into familiar gruffness.

"Hmph. Whatever."

She almost broke him out of it.

"Thanks, InuYasha. You came just in time."

*Sango's admitting she needed help?*

He didn't believe his ears, and they twitched at the thought.

Sazuna's sharp eyes focused on the mobile, white dog ears that gave his heritage away to most slow humans. "You're a demon!" She accused.

He scowled at her, arms crossing again.

"He's a friend." Sango said sharply, and amazingly, the brat actually flinched under the taijiya's tone.

"What the hell happened here?" InuYasha demanded of Sango, ignoring the other two for the moment.

Leaning tiredly against her boomerang, the taijiya suddenly looked drained. "It's a long story." She said, eyes softening as they flicked over the two girls. Sazuna slid from Kirara's back, and helped her older sister, Sarena, up. Kirara blew on the girls with a warm wuff of air, and purred slightly, reassuring them both.

Sarena looked around the cleared, burnt area, dark blue eyes wide. Brushing the sweaty ends of her bangs aside, she said frankly, "Our strength could never compare to yours."

A long look passed between Sango and Sarena. There was actually a small hint of a smile on the taijiya's lips, and she said softly, "Remember what your father said---and mine. Remember what they meant for us to be."

Sarena nodded, and Sazuna looked on skeptically. InuYasha didn't like the younger one much, and he didn't much understand the older one. He didn't even care, really.

Sarena returned the slayer's smile, looking all weird. "Be strong inside." Turning to her younger sister, who she patted on the shoulder in reassurance, she said, "We will, Sensei."

*Sensei?*

InuYasha's eyed the serene slayer with a lifted black brow, but Sango was ignoring him for the moment.

"Make your father proud."

Sarena bowed, her patting hand turning into a push for the tardy Sazuna to do so as well. "Thank you." She said simply, and then turned away. Sazuna's eyes widened, as did InuYasha's.

*They aren't just leaving, are they?*

Sarena started off, her startled sister hurrying to catch up. Neither girl turned to look behind as they passed over the long hill and disappeared into the darkened forest.

"They're just LEAVING?"

InuYasha's gaze swept back to Sango. Kirara had moved over next to the taijiya, and his exasperated demand was forgotten as he saw Sango sag against the large neko youkai, who was purring under her hands.

*She's wounded.*

"You're hurt." He accused her again. "What the hell is going on Sango? Who are those brats? Why did they just leave? Why were so many demons attacking all of you? What the hell happened in the last two months?"

Sango closed her eyes; he could sense her exhaustion. She was almost slumped over with it. "Later..." She whispered against Kirara's creamy fur.

"What do you mean, later?" InuYasha growled. "I want to know what the hell is going on right now, damn it!"

Kirara abruptly stopped purring, and stiffened just as Sango collapsed against her in a faint.

*Well, damn.*