InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Therapist ❯ The Demon's Loyal Servant ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I don't own "Inuyasha".

Word Translations:
Youkai - demon
Taiyoukai - great demon
Hanyou - half-demon
Ningen - human
Kami - deity
Miko -priestess

Yukata - a kind of light, informal kimono

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Sachiko wriggled her fingers, then tried to move her hand. But it was impossible to loosen the strange, sticky substance that glued her wrists together behind her back. She reckoned that a few days had passed since she awoke and found herself in a dark dungeon imprisoned, immobile in a wad of sticky, resin-like material that seemed to drip down from the ceiling and well up from the floor. Around this strange mess was a circle scrawled with strange markings.

 

She had no recollection of how she got here. The last memory she had was of waking up from a hellish vision and staring into the face of a young man with midnight black hair and red eyes. He said something to someone called Kanna and then she blacked out again and found herself in this resin cocoon unable to move or speak as the sticky resin hardened over her mouth, but she could still breathe freely and blink her eyes.

 

Rolling her eyes side to side to get as wide a view of the room as she could from her peripheral vision, she soon noticed that a darker splotch of shadow in a corner seemed to be moving. After a few moments, the shadow seemed to lengthen and grow in size. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Sachiko realized that it was the figure of a man getting up from a sitting position. The man moved out of the gloomy corner and stood before her.

 

She knew straight away from his piercing red eyes that he was a demon. Although he did not have the regal majesty of the silver-haired demon lord that she had met before, there was a certain unearthly quality to his handsome features. Beautiful dark locks framed his pale face as he moved with deliberate steps towards her. There was a distinct air of danger about him and a certain darkness that caused Sachiko's insides to curl up a bit.

 

He stopped a few feet from her and brought an elegant hand up to his perfectly formed chin. “I had thought at first that some kind of unknown demon had fallen prey to my Kanna. When I saw that my first assumption was untrue, I started to wonder if I had caught a miko or a human with holy powers. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. I then began to wonder if I had a celestial being in my hands, but you don't look at all like an immortal maiden from the world of the gods…”

 

“So I must confess, I Naraku, am stumped. WHAT on earth are you?” he waved a hand, and the hardened resin that covered her mouth dissolved into mist. “I naturally assumed that you might be able to cast a charm were you able to speak. I now see that that is not the case as well.”

 

“You may now answer my question.”

 

Sachiko coughed as her mouth was freed and air rushed in.

 

“Sachiko,” she rasped.

 

The dark haired demon squinted. “I suppose that means that you are no more or less than an ordinary woman?”

 

Sachiko frowned. She found this line of questioning odd. If she was indeed in hell, the demons would surely know that she was one of the dead.

 

“Am I in hell?”

 

The young man laughed, “Now why would you think that?”

 

“You ARE indeed a demon?”

 

“Indeed that is what I am.”

 

“Then I'm not dead?”

 

“Not yet,” the demon who called himself Naraku grinned, “But you are getting close to joining the ranks of fallen mortals.”

 

“I…” Sachiko's mind flashed back to the night she ran from members of the yakuza who were chasing her, and then to when she killed the grey demon. “I don't want to die.”

 

“Well, there is no reason for me to keep you alive… apart from the fact that I personally find you rather amusing.”

 

“Serve…”

 

“What?” Naraku wasn't sure he had heard it right.

 

“I will serve… If I serve you… if I swear loyalty to you… will you spare my life?” she rasped hoarsely.

 

The dark haired demon laughed. Although many had begged him to spare their lives, no one, mortal or demon had ever offered to swear allegiance to him.

 

“Very well then, you will serve,” he grinned. “As it turns out, I am in need of someone to look after my catatonic infant companion. After all, Kanna's skills are wasted as a nursemaid.”

 

Sachiko was released and immediately put in charge of the infant, who was indeed in a catatonic state. The male child did not respond to anything that she did. Sachiko assumed that the lavender-haired child was also some kind of demon, perhaps one that took the form of an innocent babe to lure the unwary. It was clear to her from the outset that this little creature was very valuable to Naraku and that should anything happen to him, her life would be worth very little indeed to the dark-haired demon. It was also clear to her that there wasn't any kind of father-son relationship between Naraku and the child, but one of cautious toleration.

 

Apart from the pale Kanna, Sachiko soon met the rest of Naraku's retinue. Kagura, the pretty demoness with a large fan, rolled her eyes as soon as she met Sachiko. She completely ignored the petite woman and was often out on some kind of mission for Naraku. Then there was Kohaku, a strange, silent human lad who only talked when spoken to by Naraku or Kagura and who often spent his days staring blankly ahead. Although he was assigned to guard Sachiko and the babe, he never spoke to her, unless it was necessary to communicate. Quietly observing him when he thought she wasn't looking, Sachiko wondered if he was indeed as much of a zombie as he made himself out to be.

 

After a week or two with Naraku, she guessed that the demon probably had a lot of enemies and was constantly moving from place to place. Although they sometimes traveled long distances through countryside that showed signs of battle, the dark-haired demon apparently had a few large, but completely deserted mansions that he rotated his stay around. She also found out that Naraku could assume various forms, particularly the form of a strange bloated beast that seemed to be a mishmash of many different youkai. Even though that form was shocking at first, it didn't stop her from ducking and running when they were ambushed by a group of demons who seemed to be looking for something that Naraku was in possession of.

 

Naraku on the other hand seemed completely amused by her reaction to his own monstrous nature. She didn't scream her head off when she saw him shape-change into a weird blob with awful tentacles and certainly didn't cower after he had brutally ripped the heads of a group of wandering bandits who had thought the group easy prey.

 

“So tell me, woman,” the dark-haired demon remarked as he licked the blood left by the bandits off his fingers. “Are you not… afraid?”

 

“Why should I be afraid?” Despite feeling the hairs on her arm stand, Sachiko was determined not to let Naraku see her fear. “I assume have not done anything to deserve your anger.”

 

“I KNOW you are afraid… I can sense these things,” he smirked. “How is it then that you are not… cowering or screaming your head off?”

 

“If you wish for me to cower or scream, I shall do so,” she replied. “But I thought that it would better serve your purpose if I remained calm and do my utmost to protect this infant. After all, if you did desire my death, no matter what I did, there is nowhere I can run to to save myself.”

 

Naraku threw a casual glance at Sachiko as she lightly rocked the infant. “Of course… as you say.”

 

They didn't speak much after that, and continued their journey through the countryside in silence. However, Sachiko noticed that the demon started to scrutinize her a little more closely after that.

 

As they traveled, the terrain started to become more hilly with thicker undergrowth. They were heading to a fortress that Naraku maintained up on the ridge of a mountain. Halfway through the journey, the group split up, leaving only Kohaku with Sachiko and the child. As she did not know the way to the demon's mountain fortress, she followed Kohaku, who silently led the way through the dense forest undergrowth. As they prodded on slowly, her eyes following Kohaku's back, Sachiko noticed that there were frequent occasions when the boy's steps slowed to a crawl and his shoulders stiffened, almost as if he were considering something. Finally, after a few long hours, he stopped in his tracks.

 

“Kohaku?”

 

The boy turned, weapon in hand and stared straight at the child that Sachiko was carrying. His eyes were no longer glazed, but filled with the anger and anxiety of a person going through a terrible inner struggle.

 

Suddenly, a strange sound blared to their right, and a huge monstrous creature that resembled a bear lunged at them. With lightning reflexes, Kohaku somersaulted away. Screaming and ducking a massive blow from the monstrous bear youkai, Sachiko ran as quickly as she could in the direction she was facing. In that split second, she had glanced back at Kohaku and was sure she saw a look of relief in the boy's face.

 

She kept running and did not stop until she was out of breath. Then she fell to her knees and crawled behind a tree. Looking from behind her tree, she saw that she had completely lost sight of the bear youkai and Kohaku as well. She waited for a bit, wondering if the lad would eventually find her, but after about 20 minutes, she got up and wondered if she should call out to the boy at all.

 

Swallowing hard, she got up from her position behind the tree and turned in the direction that she thought the fortress was at. Nervously, she stepped forward, and was about to call out Naraku's name when she spotted a strange shape lying in the clearing ahead of her. Quietly, she slipped forward to investigate and found herself staring at a strangely armoured woman with what appeared to be a gigantic broken boomerang lying beside her. Since the woman appeared to be unconscious, Sachiko strapped the infant youkai to her back and gently turned the woman so that she was lying face up. As she did that, the woman groaned and opened her eyes.

 

“Hel…p…” the woman struggled to sit up despite the blood flowing from her wounds. Sachiko quickly caught hold of her as she stood up on shaky legs.

 

“Go…” she rasped. “We have to go… youkai…”

 

Sachiko nodded and supported the woman as she limped along, struggling to keep her head up as she moved slowly through the dense forest. They moved together for quite awhile, before they came upon an abandoned hut. Quickly, Sachiko moved the woman into the building and lay her down on whatever was left of a straw mat. After finding a basket for the infant, she pulled it into a corner, far away from the woman and then went outside with a leaky bucket that was in the hut to find some water.

 

As day turned into night, Sachiko cleaned and bandaged the woman's wounds with cloth torn from a sleeve of her peasant's outfit. She made a fire and closed whatever remained of the door to the hut. Although unconscious, the strange young woman was breathing normally. Occasionally, she checked on the infant. The lavender eyed babe stared at her with unblinking eyes, obviously in some kind of coma, but in very good health.

 

After a few hours, she heard the young woman cough. Finding a cracked bowl, she offered the woman some water. The dark-haired woman coughed again as she sipped the water then stopped and looked at her with eyes that seemed to belong to a much older person.

 

“Thank you,” she whispered.

 

“It's no matter.”

 

“I am Sango, who are you?”

 

“Sachiko.”

 

“I am sorry for putting you in danger,” she said.

 

“Travellers on the road have to look out for each other,” Sachiko smiled at her pretty young woman, whose face was pale from the loss of blood.

 

“Is that your child?” Sango glanced at the basket in the corner.

 

“Yes. We are traveling to meet his father,” Sachiko tried not to blink as she lied through her teeth.

 

“It's nice to have family.”

 

“Yes it certainly is… do you have any family, Sango?”

 

Her question caused tears to fall from the young woman's eyes. It didn't take long for Sachiko to find out that this Sango was a demon hunter and that her family was killed by a certain notorious demon that sounded a lot like Naraku.

 

“I think I have heard of a demon like that,” she remarked cautiously.

 

“Oh?”

 

“There was this attack by a fearsome demon on a village near where I live. The survivors said that he was called `Naraku',” Sachiko observed Sango's reaction from the corner of her eye.

 

The young woman's face contorted instantly when hearing the name. With a demon's strength, she grabbed hold of Sachiko's yukata and demanded, “Where is he! Where did you see him!”

 

Gently but firmly, Sachiko pushed Sango's hands away. “I did not see this demon, Naraku. I heard about him from the surviving villagers.”

 

“So you have said,” Sango sighed. “Forgive me for my rudeness.”

 

Sachiko nodded and smiled. She prodded Sango for more information and found that with a bit of water and a kindly smile, she managed to get the young woman started on a long tale about how she and her companions fought Naraku, and how she had lost her brother Kohaku to him. As Sango talked about the Shikon no Tama, or the Jewel of Four Souls, and how it was related to her brother, Sachiko finally understood the struggle she had witnessed in Kohaku's eyes.

 

“I suppose my story is pretty fanciful,” Sango laughed softly.

 

“Not at all,” Sachiko smiled.

 

“You know, if I had a choice, I don't want to die like this,” she coughed again, staring ahead at the thatched roof of the hut. “Fighting youkai… like Kagome.”

 

“You won't die.” Certainly, her conversation with Sango was proving most enlightening. She now had an idea who it was that she had seen in the silver-haired demon lord's prison. “I am sure that whatever good kami are out there would protect people like you.”

 

“You are a good person, Sachiko.”

 

Sachiko smiled as Sango eventually fell asleep from exhaustion. As dawn approached, she wondered what she was going to do with the demon hunter.

 

“They're here!” a familiar female voice rang out.

 

Although she did not get a wink of sleep, Sachiko ran to the door and flung it open. Standing in the doorway, the beautiful Kagura threw up her fan in surprise. A short distance away, she saw Naraku, Kanna and Kohaku making their way towards her. Kohaku seemed to have resumed his zombie-like composure.

 

“Who's that in the hut with you, mortal?” Kagura was peering into the hut with her beady red eyes.

 

Before Sachiko could answer, Kagura pushed her aside and marched in.

 

“What is it, Kagura?” Naraku was now at the door.

 

“It's the demon hunter,” Kagura was grinning as she stooped beside the sleeping Sango. “She's unconscious and won't resist a killing blow.”

 

“She's yours…”

 

“WAIT!” Sachiko flung herself over the still unconscious demon slayer. The pause that followed her action seemed to last an eternity.

 

The dark-haired demon frowned in disdain. “I thought you liked being alive, woman.”

 

“I … I do this for your sake… master.”

 

“Oh-ho, I am your master now am I? I haven't heard that from you yet!” Well, it was true. Sachiko had managed to refrain from actually calling him her master.

 

“You were my master since the day I swore loyalty to you,” Despite whatever she was feeling, she knew that she had only one chance to save the demon slayer.

 

Naraku laughed quietly. “So explain to me, `loyal servant', how saving the life of this wretched demon slayer is in my best interest.”

 

“If you kill her, you destroy the only chance you have of completely eliminating two of your most dangerous enemies!” the words were hurriedly blurted out, and Sachiko wasn't too sure what her line of argument was.

 

“Oh and WHO might they be?”

 

“This woman, and…” it was an act of betrayal, but if she did not do it, there would soon be two very dead women on the ground. She pointed at the lad, whose shaking hand was on the grip of his weapon.

 

Sachiko had hoped that Kohaku could maintain his composure. But, as luck would have it, Naraku instantly spotted the lad's shaking hand on the grip of his weapon. Swiftly, the demon grabbed the boy by his neck and lifted him off the ground.

 

“Ha! I knew it!” he squeezed the boy's neck hard enough to cause Kohaku to pass out.

 

“NO! NO! You can end this!” Sachiko silently cursed her ill luck.

 

“Indeed! Once I kill them both, I would have 2 less enemies to contend with!”

 

“NO! I mean you can get rid of ALL your enemies at once!”

 

Naraku frowned, adding sarcastically, “We have a genius in our hands! HOW would YOU accomplish what I, Naraku, have failed to do?”

 

“By redirecting your enemies' focus.”

 

That last sentence seemed to catch the demon's attention, “I am intrigued by what you have proposed. Explain yourself.”

 

“For it to work, I will need to speak in private with you…master.” Sachiko noticed a slight upturning of the demon's mouth. He seemed amused when she abased herself before him.

 

She turned towards the demon. Kneeing she bowed low to him, head touching the ground. “I beg of you… master. Spare this lad and the demon slayer till you have heard me out. If my explanation does not please you… you may then slay… all of us.”

 

Naraku roared with laughter. “So you are also a gambler! Very well then, I shall let my most loyal `general' `advise' me!”

 

He dropped the unconscious Kohaku on the ground.