InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Key to the Meidou-Seki ❯ Kurokemuri ( Chapter 4 )

“Lady Kaede! Lady Kaede!”

 

A little orphan boy no more than four years old came running into Kaede's hut, looking unnerved.

 

“What is it, Botan?”

 

“It's going to rain! It's going to rain!”

 

“What are you talking about, child?” Kaede dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “There isn't a cloud in the sky today.”

 

Botan tugged on her sleeve. “Come look! I saw it! Come look!”

 

Kaede sighed. Her joints weren't what they used to be, and she was looking forward to settling down with a nice hot cup of tea. Botan was an easily excitable child. And who could blame him? The poor thing had lost his parents not two weeks ago in a fire. Kaede decided it was best to see what had gotten him so upset—the sooner to calm his nerves. “Oh, all right, child.” With some difficulty, she lifted herself to her feet. Botan took her hand and practically pulled her outside.

 

“Not so fast, dear, I can't keep up.”

 

“Hurry! Look!”

 

“There's nothing out here, child—oh!”

 

Suddenly Kaede had been covered in shadow, and the shadow was quickly moving over the rest of the village.

 

“See?” Botan pointed toward the sky. “A cloud!”

 

Kaede began drawing out an arrow from the sling on her back. “That's no cloud, child…”

 

The cloud, or so it appeared, was darker than night and spreading fast. Villagers were running out of their homes to see the spectacle. Suddenly part of the cloud began to descend. Screams and cries of “Black fog!” were heard throughout the village as the smoke swept through the land and into the homes.

 

“Stay behind me, child,” Kaede said.

 

A great and terrible voice as big as the sky itself suddenly rang out as the smoke circled around Kaede and Botan.

 

“So much sorrow. So much loss. I can feel this child's pain. How delicious!”

 

“You will not touch him!” Kaede said as she released an arrow towards the smoke.

 

The sound of horrible, hacking laughter came as the arrow went through the smoke harmlessly. “Foolish crone,” the smoke coughed. “I am the great Kurokemuri. I am like the air itself. My body is ever moving. Your souls are mine!” Like a black tidal wave, the smoke raced toward them.

 

“Run, Botan!” Kaede urged.

 

“I will not leave you, Lady Kaede!”

 

Botan watched in horror as the smoke hovered in front of Kaede's face for a moment before it lunged straight into her eyes. Kaede opened her mouth as though to scream in pain and then her whole body stiffened. She fell over like a stone, unblinking, unmoving. Her bow and arrows fell uselessly to the ground with her.

 

“Lady Kaede! Lady Kaede!” Botan was shaking her over and over. The whites of her eyes had turned black with the smoke, and she seemed not to see or hear him.

 

Kurokemuri laughed again. His smoky body was circling around the boy like a shark. “The pain of her sister's death is delectable, but yours wwwill be much fresher!”

 

Botan screamed….

 

 

 

Rin sneezed.

 

“You know what they say about sneezing, Rin,” Kagome chuckled. “It means someone somewhere is talking about you behind your back!”

 

“It must be Master Jaken, then.” Rin sighed. “I don't know, Kagome. I don't think I'll make a very good miko. I can't even gather medicinal herbs without sneezing all the time, and here it was so nice of you and Inuyasha to take me all the way out here. You're a good teacher, Kagome. I guess I'm just a lousy student.”

 

“That's not true, Rin! You're a fast learner. You just need to steer clear of those yellow weeds. I think you're allergic to them…. Hey, Inuyasha, what's the matter? You look worried.”

 

“I hear something.” Inuyasha's ears had tweaked once, twice, and now he turned in the direction of the village. “Sounds like shouting. Looks like it's storming over there, too.”

 

Kagome squinted. The village was far in the distance, but she could make out a black cloud overhead. “That's funny, that wasn't there before. What is it?”

 

Suddenly Inuyasha drew Tessaiga. “Get back! Whatever it is, it's heading our way fast!”

 

Kagome gasped. “Rin, get down! Hide in the grass!”

 

Rin crouched down on her hands and knees in the tall grass and watched as a great arm of black smoke reached out through the sky and dove toward them.

 

Kagome drew an arrow and let it go. It soared through the cloud. “What?” she cried out when it landed in the distance futilely. “It's not miasma! The smoke seems to have a mind of its own. I think it… I think it actually got out of the way!”

 

“Feh. Whatever it is, it's history now!” Inuyasha brandished Tessaiga before him. “Meidou zangetsuha!”

 

A giant Meidou was sent flying out of the sword toward the great cloud of smoke. As Kagome had guessed, the smoke parted like a wave as the Meidou opened. A tiny portion of the smoke vanished into the Meidou. But a cloud as big as a village still remained.

 

“Keh! This idiot doesn't know when to give up!” Inuyasha hurled Meidou after Meidou at the monster, but the smoke was too quick, too large. It was like poking bucket-sized holes in the ocean.

 

Soon the smoke wrapped around Inuyasha and Kagome.

 

“Kagome, get back!” Inuyasha cried. He jumped out in front of her, but in an instant, the smoke spread and seeped into their eyes until the whites were clouded black. Inuyasha and Kagome stood frozen, paralyzed, as the spirit dug deep into their souls.

 

No! Rin thought, watching in horror from her hiding spot in the grass. She had to get up! She had to help her friends!

 

She was about to leap out when suddenly there was a miserable howling noise like a wounded animal. Rin clutched her ears in pain as black smoke began to leak out of Inuyasha and Kagome's eyes.

 

“No! No! You two only exude happiness. Horrible, wwwretched happiness! Wwwhere is the delicious pain? I know I felt it here! Wwwhere is it?!”

 

Inuyasha and Kagome started to blink slowly. They could move again.

 

“You bastard!” Inuyasha yelled as soon as he had regained full control of his body, and he hurled another Meidou at the monster.

 

Just stay in the grass, Rin! Kagome thought. I won't let him find you!

 

 

 

“It's times like this I wish I still had the kazaana,” Miroku said grimly, peeking out of their hut at the destruction. All across the village, people were lying paralyzed across the ground, their eyes clouded and frozen like horrible black marbles. “I could have sucked up this smoke monster easily.”

 

“Don't talk like that,” Sango said, affixing her taijiya gas mask to her face. “It's bad to wish a curse on yourself.”

 

“Sango!” Miroku put a hand on her shoulder. “Surely you're not thinking of going out there in your condition!” His eyes pointed toward her stomach, where his as-yet-unborn fourth child resided.

 

Sango's voice teetered shrilly. “We can't just leave Kagome and Inuyasha to fend for themselves! They're alone out there in the fields—they're easy targets!”

 

“You can't risk a fight in your condition, and I can't leave you here alone to defend yourself and the children should our home come under attack! Inuyasha and Kagome can take care of themselves.”

 

Sango pushed past Miroku. “I won't let them die.”

 

“Wait, Sango! Come see this. I don't think Inuyasha and Kagome are under any real danger.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Look at all the victims lying there outside. They're all bachelors, widows, and orphans…”

 

“Is that why our house was passed over? Because we're married?” Sango wondered.

 

“It's possible. In any case, I don't like sitting here any better than you do, but this isn't our fight. We have our children to think of now, and I won't abandon them. Inuyasha and Kagome will have to take care of this one alone.”

 

Sango sighed, her lip trembling. “I know you're right. I just hope they're okay.”

 

“I do, too,” Miroku said, and he held Sango close and whispered reassuring words into her hair.

 

 

 

“Wwwhere is it?! Wwhere is Kurokemuri's prey? I know I sensed sorrow here! Wwwhere is it?!” the whirling smoke howled as it circled Inuyasha and Kagome.

 

Kagome bit her lip. I have to draw him away. He mustn't find Rin! Keep stalling him, Inuyasha!

 

Inuyasha threw another Meidou at Kurokemuri with Tessaiga.

 

“Ant! Let's take away your little toy!”

 

With a gale-like force surging through his body, Kurokemuri swept Tessaiga up into the air and carried it far away on the wind.

 

“Hey!” Inuyasha cried. “You bastard! Sankon Tessou!” He clawed at the smoke uselessly, and even tried throwing a punch at Kurokemuri's gaseous form.

 

“Kukuku,” Kurokemuri rasped. “Pathetic fool!”

 

“Kurokemuri!” Kagome yelled, trying to keep him distracted. “What is it that you want?”

 

“I feed on the sorrow and guilt that resides in the souls of the forsaken! Before long, nothing is left of them but a hollow shell! Ah, these are good times for me. So many battles, so many wwwars, so many delicious souls who have lost their loved ones!”

 

Inuyasha growled. He knew that not long ago, he and his friends would have been easy prey for Kurokemuri too. He had lost his mother and Kikyo, Miroku had lost his father, Sango had lost her entire taijiya village…. If not for the love and the strength that Kagome had given him, Inuyasha knew he would be as good as stone now under Kurokemuri's spell.

 

“I know I sensed an orphan here! Wwwhere is it?!”

 

“If you want us to tell you,” Kagome shouted, and suddenly jumped onto Inuyasha's back, “you'll have to catch us! Inuyasha, run!”

 

“Right!”

 

Inuyasha tore off with Kagome on his back at top speed.

 

“Head for the forest!” Kagome cried. “There's lots of cover under there. We can keep him busy chasing us for hours!”

 

“Yeah,” Inuyasha said, grunting as they heard Kurokemuri howl overhead after them, “but what then? We can't outrun this thing forever. He threw Tessaiga ten miles in the other direction, and your arrows are too easy for him to dodge!”

 

“We'll think of something later! The only thing that matters right now is keeping him away from Rin.”

 

Unfortunately, the gods must have heard Kagome talking about Rin behind her back, because at that very moment, Rin felt a prickly yellow weed tickling her underneath her nose. Try as she might to keep still, Rin let out a loud and unmistakable sneeze, rustling all the tall grass around her.

 

“Wwwhat's that?” Kurokemuri howled, and two great arms of smoke darted toward the earth, sweeping through the grass like a hurricane. Rin tumbled out of the grass like a doll being thrown around.

 

“Rin!” Kagome yelled, and Inuyasha leaped back in the direction of the girl. “Whatever he tries to do, keep your eyes shut, do you hear me?!”

 

Rin screamed once as Kurokemuri's thick smoky form encircled her, and she squeezed her eyes closed as hard as she could. The black cloud had completely engulfed her. She could feel the smoke whipping through her hair and pushing against her face, choking her nostrils. She coughed, but kept her eyes shut.

 

“Little fool!” Kurokemuri wheezed. And he very slowly began to seep into the tiny crevices of the corners of her eyes.

 

“No!” Kagome cried.

 

“You bastard!” shouted Inuyasha.

 

“Kukuku,” Kurokemuri laughed as Rin began to whimper. “Did you really think that would stop the great Kurokemuri?”

 

Suddenly a great lightning-like torrent of energy ripped through Kurokemuri's body. The spirit howled in pain as half of his enormous smoky form dissolved into nothingness.

 

“No,” a voice said. “But I will.”

 

The part of the smoke that had surrounded and attacked Rin was gone. She opened her eyes.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru!”

 

Sesshomaru was floating in the air above her, brandishing Bakusaiga in one of his arms. “Jaken,” he said, and the little imp holding onto him seemed to understand immediately.

 

“Right away, milord!” Jaken let go of the mokomoko-sama and fell to the earth with a light thud. He rushed over to make sure Rin was all right, carrying the Nintoujou along with him just in case Kurokemuri got any stupid ideas to attack Rin when her Master Jaken was around.

 

“Kurokemuri,” Sesshomaru said. There was a deadly gleam in his eyes and the slightest trace of a smile on his face. Jaken shuddered when he saw that look. It was the look Sesshomaru always wore when he greatly anticipated his next kill. This fight would not be pretty. “Let's finish this.”

 

Kurokemuri whirled around him in a great torrent of black smoke many meters high. It was like Sesshomaru was caught in the eye of a tornado, the wind whipping his hair furiously about him.

 

“Very wwwell!” Kurokemuri howled, and struck!