InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Thicker Than Water ❯ Moving Out ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: Moving Out

Miroku beamed at the gaggle of women across the road. His seat on the bench afforded him a very nice eye-level view of their…assets. He hadn't sat there for that express reason, but who was he to complain if fortune decided to throw him some table scraps? The village women had long since wised up to his tactics, Sango having warned them at length that his genteel manners were not to be trusted. Ogling was the best he was going to get.

Speaking of ogling, there was Sango now, coming around the corner.

To his intense disappointment, she spotted him from across the road and marched over with the look of a woman on a mission, thereby depriving him of an opportunity to watch her sway as she walked. Stopping not at all coincidentally in a position that both kept her out of arm's reach and blocked his view of the local women, she put her hands on her hips, but nonetheless spoke with utmost politeness, the silent threat of Hiraikotsu looming over her shoulder.

"Houshi-sama, have you seen Shippou? Kaede-sama has been looking all over for him."

"No, I haven't. Isn't he out with Kagome-sama?"

"No, she went out looking for Inuyasha and he didn't want to go with her."

"No surprise there, with him in this kind of mood."

Sango warily eyed the bench and sighed before gingerly sitting down on it next to him. She was careful to position herself as far away from his wandering hand as possible.

"I hope Kagome-chan manages to grow some patience in him someday."

The last week had been preternaturally bare of any and all Shikon no Tama rumors. This, of course, made Inuyasha irritable, argumentative, and obnoxious - even more so than usual.

Miroku's head bobbed in rueful agreement.

"For all our sakes, she had better. It's unnerving to have him in this state. When he's snarling and whacking everyone within a twenty-foot radius, I can't help but get the feeling that something nasty is sneaking up on us and, with his senses, he's the only one who has a clue."

Sango sighed and dropped her head, suddenly pensive, cool shadow sliding over her cheekbones. Miroku felt the liquid shade of the roof eaves pour over his own face as he leaned back, his mind suddenly heavy with thoughts of the Shikon no Tama and their search for its fragments. Nowadays, the feeling that something nasty was sneaking up on them was a common one. Trust came harder and harder, and even small and ordinary things seemed ominous.

But despite the constant peril of the quest and the frequently irascible, occasionally improbable nature of the relations among the members of their small coterie, Miroku found himself unwillingly thankful for the shattered jewel and the trouble it brought. Life was mostly uncomfortable, often painful, and always stressful. Since joining Kagome and Inuyasha on their search, he had seen some truly horrible sights. By now, he had memorized the smell and color of blood, and even knew its texture in his nightmares, slick and warm and deceptively silky.

But for all that, it kept him distracted.

He still remembered the nights when after conning the local gentry out of a room he would lie silently watching the ceiling. He would gently finger the rosary that crossed his hand, counting the smooth sandalwood beads and listening to the quiet whisper of wood beneath his fingertips, his mind filled with the leaden thought that under the warm cloth and gently clacking beads lay ravenous emptiness, not flesh and blood as there ought to be. Sometimes he would dream of nothing but the booming roar of the wind in the darkness and wake panting, clutching his chest with one hand. He always kept the other rosary-circled one as far away from himself as he could, unable to look away from it as he tried over and over again to swallow the knot lodged in his throat.

Now in his ill-gotten lodgings, in good times he argued with Inuyasha and stole the occasional chance to feel up Sango, and in bad he aided whoever else was healthy at the moment in bandaging cuts and splinting bones. When he had nightmares, they were usually brutally violent. But, well, he was used to brutality and violence, and it was far, far better than dreaming of being swallowed up into nothing. He only rarely had those kinds of dreams now.

Sango viewed the quest in a somewhat different light. It was her personal mission of vengeance, a bloody duty whose weight burdened her mind at odd moments. In the early days, there had been times when she could hardly bear to eat, remembering the easy normality of her family's meals. How her mother would always make a habitual disparagement of her cooking, only to be met with her father's enthusiastic disagreement and Kohaku's silent but hearty nods, his mouth already full. Sango herself had always laughed and joined in with her father.

It was hard to remember that now without also remembering her father's shredded body and the time she had come home to find her village soaked in darkness that had been far too liquid to be shadow, people she had never thought would need protection lying neatly under row upon row upon row of gently rounded earthen mounds. And Kohaku… always so gentle, his face had kept that calmness even as he lunged toward her bearing a weapon she had helped teach him to use.

After the Shikon no Tama's corrupt influence had clouded her life, there were precious few easy memories left to her.

They both sat there in silence for a while, thoughts similarly adrift. The dusty halo of the day's last light seemed impotent from where they sat, a frail and watery force incapable of breaking the shadows dripping from under the eaves.

At long last, Miroku shook himself from his pensive state and turned to Sango, hoping to return their thoughts to safer, more ordinary matters. Her expression caught at him, her eyes grim under half-closed lids, the bitter twist to her lips tenderly highlighted in the soft light of the setting sun. She looked frozen, terribly tranquil, and Miroku was stricken with the sudden premonitory fear that if they could not complete the Shikon no Tama, that expression might affix itself to her face permanently.

"Sango."

Softly said, but nevertheless she started before facing him again, features falling into the easy neutrality of ordinary life.

"Should we go look for Shippou?"

Sango nodded and they got up, their shadows lengthening behind them as they walked slowly toward the forest.

* * * * *

At that very moment, Shippo scampered through the undergrowth of Inuyasha's forest in search of Kagome. He played a game as he went, popping in and out of bushes in a zigzag path, narrow paws finding their way among leaves and twigs with no trouble at all. He had slipped away from Kaede a quarter of an hour ago and immediately sped off to find Kagome. She had been gone for an hour already, and Shippo was feeling bored. Very bored. At times like these, the best thing to do was talk to Kagome. Her down-to-earth kindness was reassuring, and she would listen to what he had to say, and talk to him in return. Hah! At least she knew who was the smart one in their group.

He knew she'd gone off to find Inuyasha, and that most likely meant that she'd be angry and frustrated when she came back, so she'd probably want to see him, too. Sometimes when that happened she'd take him and they'd go sit together somewhere and she would tell him stories about her time or play a game with him. Eventually, they'd usually nap for a while together before making their way back to wherever the rest of the group was staying at the time. Shippo loved spending time alone with Kagome like that, without the others around to mess things up, but it made him vaguely unhappy that almost the only time it happened was when Kagome was upset. Sure, the rest of the time she played with him and gave the occasional surreptitiously smuggled future snack, but those special times when he had her all to himself only came when she had a fight with Inuyasha.

In a way, Shippo was grateful to Inuyasha for making Kagome spend time with him like that, but at the same time it angered and confused him that the hanyou hurt Kagome so often.

He didn't understand Inuyasha at all. Just how dumb was he to keep doing that? Especially when he got sat for it?

…Speaking of the jerk, here he came.

Inuyasha landed on the tree-branch directly over Shippou's head in flash of red clothing. He was scowling harder than usual, and his posture was tenser than his wont. Plus, he had been running through the forest at top speed for no apparent reason. It did not take a genius to deduce what must have occurred.

"What are you doing here, twerp? Get out before I punt you out."

Shippou frantically responded to this command with the impertinent and fearful sense of outraged justice that only small children possess.

"I'm looking for Kagome, you idiot! Where is she? What did you do to her?!"

"Keh. Ask her yourself. Now get lost."

And with that Inuyasha was gone, launched into another tree at top speed.

"Jerk!"

With no response forthcoming from the vanished hanyou, Shippou turned and trotted back toward the village as fast as his legs would carry him. It took something serious to upset Inuyasha enough that he would be charging around the forest like that. Usually he just sat and brooded and made everyone else miserable. And if Inuyasha was worked up, then it meant Kagome must be in tears.

Again.

Inuyasha really was a jerk.

* * * * *

The said jerk continued his hell-bent race through his forest, needing to feel the stinging twinge of fatigued muscles and the harsh slap of the wind against his limbs. Usually when shit like this came up, he would go find a tree to stay in and think about it, but this was different. Now he had to somehow divert energy from churning, disjointed internal monologue presently stuffing his skull. His mind was alive with sharp thoughts, jumping and shoving inside it so forcefully that it felt as if it might explode at any minute. He didn't know which ones he should heed. All were equally confused, and in the darkness of his mind, equally disturbing.

Kagome had just twisted his arm into playing lord for some backward human state. Apparently, by her standards, he owed these people he'd never met. Because they were his family.

Just what the hell was he supposed to think about that?

This lady he was supposed to help was…what, his cousin? A relative of his mother.

…He hoped she didn't look like his mother. He didn't want to have to deal with that.

Dammit. What the hell was a ruler supposed to do, anyway?

A new burst of speed put him out over a small stream in a leap. His feet touched the limb of another tree on the other side, and he launched himself off again, swiftly disappearing into the branches as the dusk deepened to velvety blackness, enfolding Inuyasha's Forest in a soft embrace.

* * * * *

Shunsoku wandered dejectedly back through the forest, mournfully appraising the irony of his situation. He really should have had some inkling at that name. Inuyasha. So terribly unimaginative and utterly truthful. He could not imagine a more unsuitable candidate for lordship.

Not that it mattered. He was fairly sure that Inuyasha would prove just as unenthusiastic at the prospect as he himself was, and no matter what the girl might say, he didn't see Inuyasha as anything but the stubborn type after that brief encounter.

What on earth was he going to do now?

The village came into view through a ragged gap in the forest and Shunsoku trudged on toward it. The thought of retreat briefly crossed his mind; he might easily continue through the village, get on his horse and be gone long before the girl got back to tell him that his cause was completely lost. He could go back home to Shiroyama and tell Lady Usei that Inuyasha didn't exist or had died long ago. That thought was swiftly crushed with a mental snort of disgust. He owed it to Lady Usei to stay and wait on the official verdict before returning and reporting his failure.

The girl… Kagome, was it?… had mentioned that he should stay with someone named Kaede while he waited. He should probably find someone to direct him to her.

To his dismay, the only people in sight were obviously a couple in the midst of some rather private business. Shunsoku could tell it was private because the man's hand was at the moment somewhere behind the girl, much lower than her shoulders or even her back. Do they really have to do that in public? With a sigh, he continued on his way toward the village. He could search for Kaede on his own, if need be. He hadn't gotten far, however, when his course was interrupted by the sound of a mighty slap.

…Apparently, they weren't a couple, after all.

His dilemma solved for him, Shunsoku hastened forward to inquire about Kaede before the man was no longer among the living to answer his questions.

"Ahem."

At his noisy throat-clearing, both looked up. The man picked himself up off the ground, allowing Shunsoku to see that he was a monk. The woman shot him a very prim look and smoothed the front of her yukata casually before speaking.

"Excuse the disturbance. Do you need any help?"

"Yes. I need to see Kaede. Could you tell me where she is?"

The monk opened his mouth to speak, but before he could make a sound, the girl jumped in.

"Actually, we'll be seeing Kaede-sama shortly. We're looking for a lost child at the moment. After we find him, we're going back to her house. If you help us look, we could show you where it is on the way back."

"That's all right. I'll find her myself. Kagome - do you know her? - told me to wait for her there, and I don't think she'll take long, so…"

The monk finally spoke up.

"Wait, wait. Kagome-sama sent you?"

Again the girl interjected.

"How do you know Kagome-chan?"

This reaction rather startled Shunsoku. He was puzzled at the sudden worry and tension in their voices, and the protective anger in the girl's query. He had expected perhaps a bit of good-natured joking about mutual acquaintances and it being a small world should they happen to know her. This threw him for a loop, and he began to somewhat nervously explain himself and his circumstances.

* * * * *

Sango listened to the stranger's tale with growing trepidation. While the news that Inuyasha was the lord of someplace or other was certainly less calamitous than she had feared, it was not good news either. From Shunsoku's description, it sounded as if Kagome had become stubborn and would argue in circles with Inuyasha until he faced up to the responsibility and went to Shiroyama.

She could only imagine the effect this would have on Inuyasha's already volatile sulk. A quarrel with Kagome was not going to help matters at all. Though Inuyasha would most likely acquiesce in the end, he would probably not do it gracefully. If he resented it as much as she thought he would, the whole thing could turn into a very big mess.

This was, of course, assuming that the whole setup wasn't a trap.

In the course of telling her how Inuyasha had acquired the Tetsusaiga, Kagome had mentioned how Sesshoumaru had played on Inuyasha's lack of family to his advantage, and how powerful a card it had proven. If it had worked once, an enemy might well try the trick again.

As Shunsoku's tale wound to a close, she shot a glance at Miroku to confirm that the same thoughts had occurred to him. The monk was an incurable lecher, but when he wasn't thinking about girls, girls, girls, he had a sharp mind. Miroku returned her look and picked up the conversation.

"Thank you for telling us. I am Miroku, and this is Sango. We are Kagome-sama and Inuyasha's traveling companions. If Sango agrees, we can take you to Kaede-sama now."

With this, he turned to Sango, who gave an almost imperceptible nod as she replied. It would undoubtedly be best to keep Shunsoku under observation until they were sure of the situation.

"That would be fine, Houshi-sama. It's almost dinner time anyway, so Shippou will be back soon in any case."

* * * * *

Kaede turned out to be the old lady who had pointed him to Inuyasha. Shunsoku discreetly sulked a bit, suspecting that she had played one of those sneaky tricks on him that the elderly seemed to periodically enjoy playing upon the young. His funk went unnoticed, however, and he was soon employed along with Sango and Miroku in chopping vegetables to make the stew. Most of the vegetables, he noted, were wild, and there was no millet to be made into cakes with it. The fare of a village that survived only barely at the level of subsistence. Though the stew contained meat, he uneasily suspected that this was courtesy of Inuyasha, who had not looked at all the type to subsist entirely on tubers.

Sometime in the midst of scraping the dirt off a particularly recalcitrant root, he received his second scare of the day when a small, furry, orange thing streaked into the hut, wailing at an eardrum-perforating pitch about Kagome and Inuyasha. The other occupants of the hut quickly moved to calm the new arrival, and Shunsoku saw that the furball was in reality a child. - a kitsune. Apparently, this was the child Sango and Miroku had been looking for. After the shock of Inuyasha's appearance, however, he found himself too jaded to be astonished. Besides, this youkai seemed much less threatening than Inuyasha, and so he contented himself with bemusedly watching the little kitsune absently stroke his tail as the others related Shunsoku's story to him. The little one had quite a mouth on him, though nothing compared to Inuyasha's. His violent astonishment at the idea of Inuyasha being lord of anything kept Shunsoku's mind momentarily off the fact that Inuyasha likely wouldn't consent to being lord of anything, anyway.

When the stew had started to bubble, Kagome herself entered the hut, looking rather tired but otherwise in good spirits. Upon seeing Sango, Miroku, and Shippou there, she started to explain the situation to them, but they quickly stopped her, already having heard the tale.

"Well, I talked to Inuyasha and he agreed. We leave early tomorrow."

There was a momentary lull. Shunsoku gaped and tried his hardest to determine whether this counted as good news or bad. Shippou soon broke the silence with a sly comment.

"Ooooh. You sat him a lot, didn't you, Kagome? No wonder he's so pissed."

"You saw him, Shippou-chan?" Kagome sighed and a slight scowl pulled at her brows. Shunsoku thought wryly that she seemed very much inured to arguing with Inuyasha. "Is he very upset?"

Shippou recounted his brief conversation with Inuyasha, and Kagome gave a mental wince. That did not bode for a pleasant journey on the morrow. Or the day after. Or the day after that, for that matter. Inuyasha had an inordinately long sulk-time.

Inuyasha and his moods were summarily and unceremoniously ejected from the conversation when Kaede pronounced the stew done. They enjoyed a pleasant meal, if speedy, meal, and soon settled in for the night. If an upset Inuyasha wanted an early start to their latest journey, it was generally best to attempt to oblige him.

For a while after the others had ceased to turn uneasily, Kagome lay awake, cradling Shippou to her stomach as her gaze idly traced the rough grain of the wooden wall she faced. Now that the excitement had worn down and she had time to think, she was starting to worry a bit. Inuyasha was undoubtedly in a mood, and well, she could see why. Not to say that she wasn't right or anything. Just…well, his family (or lack thereof) was always a touchy subject. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to grow up alone, and even worse, to grow up alone not because there was no one there to take care of you, but because no one wanted to take care of you. Inuyasha had looked surprised when she'd told him. Did he even know he had relatives besides Sesshoumaru?

Thinking about it, she decided that he probably didn't. He'd been sealed for fifty years, after all. Any human relatives he might have known would probably have died in that time.

Now she was starting to feel a bit guilty. This really looked like a mess in the making. Surely no one at Shiroyama would be pleased at the prospect of being ruled by a youkai, even a half-breed one. And, well, it was kind of Inuyasha's personal mess. It was his family. And she'd sort of pushed him into it.

…But it wasn't fair that a girl be cast out of her home like that when they could do something about it. And really, there was no help for it now. She had put her foot down, and even if she retracted her command, Inuyasha was far too stubborn to back down just because she said he didn't have to do it. For better or worse, they were committed. And it was the right thing to do.

Still…

Kagome closed her eyes and did her best to sleep. Dawn would come soon enough, and things would be clearer in the light of morning.

* * * * *

Inuyasha started the next day off right - that is to say, with a kick to Shunsoku's stomach. Though it was really more of a gentle nudge than a true kick, the hoarse squawk and scrabbling leap it resulted in were quite satisfying. The noise woke the others up, and he snarlingly told them to hurry up and get ready before stomping outside to wait.

Thankfully, it did not take them long to assemble at the road, and they were soon off. After that promising start, however, the trip quickly went downhill. They were slow, plain and simple. They dawdled along the path, chatting happily back and forth, as if this were just another routine shard-hunt. They wanted to stop for lunch. They wanted to stop to rest. What the hell was wrong with them? Didn't they get how big a deal this was? Didn't they realize this wasn't going to be a frikkin' walk in the woods?

Inuyasha himself stalked along the road far ahead of them, scowling to himself and calling out the occasional derisory remark on their speed over his shoulder. He eventually succeeded in goading them into having Kirara transform and carry Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Shunsoku (whose horse had taken a violent dislike to Inuyasha and had been left in Kaede's care) for short periods of time. In this way, they were able to cover a great deal of ground without tiring Kirara overly. Inuyasha wound up carrying Kagome on his back for these interludes. At first, she tried to talk to him, but his answers were as brusque and monosyllabic as he could make them, and eventually she lapsed into a silence almost as sullen as his own. When they camped, he hung around only long enough to snatch and devour his dinner before disappearing up his tree for the night. No one bothered him, which was just fine by him.

Against his better judgment, Inuyasha found himself curious about Shiroyama. He knew as little of human customs as he did of youkai ones, and the task of ruling a whole state full of humans was a daunting one, but also in some ways an attractive one.

He remembered his mother sometimes trying to teach him something or other of human society. Specks and shreds of culture littered his mind, uncounted and unordered. He knew fairy tales and nursery rhymes and how to read. She had taught him a little about how to write before she had died. He remembered the curiously wistful, almost guilty expression her face had held as she had shown him how to hold the brush, telling him to mind his claws and not accidentally dip them in the ink. Looking back on it now, he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she had wanted to teach him human things to make him seem a little more like an ordinary child.

He felt instantly ashamed of the thought and hastily exiled it from his mind. His mother had been the only one to care for him for the first part of his life, and he could not betray her memory in that fashion. He wondered what she would think of the situation he now found himself in and ruefully concluded that she would probably side with Kagome.

How on earth was he going to do this? A bunch of humans weren't going to shut up and do what he said, just because he was distantly related to their ruler. Somehow, he would have to make them, though, if he were really going to go through with this whole stupid business. Andat this point, he was definitely going through with it. It wasn't even that the humans were the only problem. Any youkai there should happen to be within Shiroyama wouldn't take kindly to a hanyou in charge.

Inuyasha spent most of the trip grumbling irritably to himself as he thought circles around the problem, and in the end succeeded only in realizing just how many problems there were with this situation, and just how screwed he was.

With the aid of youkai speed, the journey that had taken Shunsoku two weeks was completed in three days. By the eve of the third day, they were camped in the lee of a hill from whose top they could faintly see the outer walls of Shiroyama's keep, huddling nearly invisible against the pale stone of the mountain itself.

AN: Many, many thanks to KellyChan, Merith, and Chri for beta-reading this and saving me from myself. It's much appreciated!

Additional thanks to those of you who read this - I hope you enjoy it.