InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter Nine

 

“Welcome back,” Kazuki said when Yuki and Haruka walked into the hut. He and Isamu were watching Takumi, who was painting a tree. It was turning red. The colors were blending beautifully.

 

“He's really got a talent,” Haruka said, but she could see from the boys' preoccupied air that there was something serious on their minds, like there was a heavy weight on hers. Isamu's eyes met hers, then he walked over to the door.

 

“Yoshinori!” he yelled. “You and Michio have to keep an eye on Takumi for a bit, okay?”

 

“Where's the parents?” Yuki asked as the four of them walked towards the forest.

 

“They went south with oji-san yesterday,” Isamu replied. “Checking out the situation. They should be back in a few days. Kohaku-oji-san and Rin-oba-san stayed, though. Because of Tsukiko.”

 

“Then you found out about it too?” Haruka said, feeling troubled. “What the armies are doing?”

 

“Yep,” Kazuki confirmed. “A tiger-youkai girl and her little brother fled all the way here. They're staying at Isamu's. Isamu heard her telling his parents what happened.”

 

“We ran into another couple of runaways,” Yuki said. “A stag-youkai and his son. The rest of their family were murdered. Even the children…”

 

“It's horrible,” Haruka whispered, her eyes bright. “I can understand why people would fight against the likes of Naraku, but these youkai are peaceful!” Isamu put his arm around her shoulders as she fought against the tears. Yuki met Kazuki's look behind their backs, and shook her head. Kazuki sat down on a tree stump and sighed, staring up at the sky.

 

“Your family's in danger,” Yuki said to Isamu. He nodded, his face grim.

 

“We can run,” he said, not looking at any of their faces. “We can run as far as we need to. As long as they don't know that we were ever here, you're all safe.” Haruka gasped.

 

“No!” she said angrily. “Do you think we're just going to watch those soldiers go after you? No! We can fight with you, we could hide you `till the new moon so they don't know what you are-“ By this point, angry tears were splashing down her cheeks. “Do you think we'll leave you alone? Do you think I'll leave you alone? NO!”

 

Isamu stared at her, nonplussed. Kazuki snorted.

 

“Lover's quarrels aside,” he said loudly, as Haruka wiped her tears off, “You're our friends. No way in hell are we leaving you. Whether you run or fight, we're doing it with you.”

 

“Besides, there's no way we're letting you run off with Haruka, and really no way that you're leaving her behind. Face it, everyone knows you're together.”

 

“Yuki!” Haruka said, blushing. “Besides,” she added quietly, “you make it sound like we're married…”

 

“It's only a matter of time,” Yuki said with a laugh, making both of them turn redder. Then they smiled.

 

“Anyway, it's youkai-taijiya and hanyou vs. The Army, deal?” he said, holding out his hand to Isamu. Isamu shook it with a slight smile.

 

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“Aren't those monks?” Miroku said incredulously, watching the small group of ragged-robed men praying over a small fire. They all seemed to be in their thirties or forties.

 

“I recognize those scents,” SesshoMaru commented, narrowing his eyes on the men.

 

“They were the novices wandering around with that bastard Ungai, weren't they?” InuYasha growled, remembering the unpleasantly self-righteous monk who had damned near got himself and his apprentices killed.

 

“They're not fighting, they're sensing out youkai,” Sango added, watching from a gap between two trees despite the fact that Kagome's barrier was keeping their presences hidden. “The youkai can't hide or pretend from those monks.”

 

“I heard Ungai-sama was killed some years ago,” Miroku said thoughtfully. “Tried to exorcise something that was a bit beyond him again. Except this time, whatever it was stripped him to the bone. They identified him by his staff.”

 

“It's no little wonder that people fear youkai,” Sango replied, “but this indiscriminate killing makes them no better.”

 

“How long until they reach where we are?” Kagome whispered, her clasped hands unconsciously lowering towards her stomach. InuYasha looked at the camp, then at the mountains in the distance, near their village.

 

“I'd guess about six weeks, at the rate they're moving,” SesshoMaru said. He turned towards the mountains. “I am going to return north. Watch as long as you like, but you will see nothing encouraging.” With that, he vanished. Sango sighed and motioned to Kirara, who instantly transformed into her larger form.

 

“He's right, we might as well leave,” she said, mounting up with Miroku behind her. InuYasha nodded and picked up Kagome, who dropped the shield. Several of the monks around the fire looked up sharply, but by then they were already gone.

 

“We'll have to leave before the armies get here,” Kagome said sadly. “I wish we could leave the travelling until after the winter, but it doesn't seem that we'll get that luxury.”

 

“What do we tell the children?” Sango said. “What should we tell them?”

 

“Dunno about the littler kids,” Inuyasha said, “But the older ones are probably suspicious. Isamu was supposed to be asleep by the time that tiger-girl started telling us her story, but if he wasn't pretending and listening in then I'll hug SesshoMaru.” Kagome giggled and wrapped her arms more tightly around his neck, closing her eyes just to feel the familiar rhythm of being carried as he ran. She opened her eyes again, and caught Sango's glance.

 

“A little like old times, isn't it, travelling like this?” Sango commented. “If only this were as simple to resolve as killing Naraku.”

 

“After all, this time there's so much more at stake,” Miroku added quietly. No-one said anything more, but Kagome noticed a significant increase in InuYasha's speed as they headed back to the village, and their children.

 

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“We need to talk,” Kazuki and Miroku said at the same moment. They stared at each other for a moment, causing Sango to have to turn around to hide a sudden and inexplicable fit of the giggles. InuYasha snorted and looked at Yuki, Haruka and Isamu, all of whom were looking serious.

 

“All right,” he said eventually. “How much do you know?”

 

“WE know that a lot of youkai are being slaughtered by the armies in the South,” Haruka said.

 

“We know that they're moving north,” Yuki added.

 

“And we know that we're in deep shit when they get here,” Isamu said. It was a sign of the gravity of the situation that Kagome did not instantly light into InuYasha for passing his colorful vocabulary on to the children. She merely sighed sadly and placed one hand over her stomach.

 

“How long until they get here?” Kohaku asked. He and Rin had remained behind to stay with Tsukiko, so they hadn't seen the armies.

 

“SesshoMaru estimates six weeks,” Miroku said, “but it could be sooner. We don't know for sure when.” Rin went white.

 

“So are we gonna run or fight?” Kazuki said. InuYasha stared at him.

 

“You don't have to do anything,” he growled. “You're human, you're not in danger-“

 

“Otou-san,” Isamu cut in, “We already went over this. They're not budging, and I… don't want to leave Haruka.” All of the adults stared at them at this proclamation, causing the teenagers to blush, but Haruka still gripped Isamu's hand.

 

“Although I agree with them,” Miroku said. “InuYasha, did you really think we were going to sit back and watch you all hunted?”

 

“They wanna fight youkai?” Kohaku said, gripping his Kusarigama. “Let's see if they can take humans first.”

 

“Spoken like a true youkai-taijiya,” Sango said cheerily. “We're with you.”

 

Kagome smiled at her friends, her lips trembling as though she was trying not to cry. “Arigatou,” she said quietly. Inuyasha raised his sleeves to wipe her eyes.

 

“Wenches get too damn emotional when they're whelping,” he muttered, but he wouldn't meet anyone's eyes either.

 

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“What's going on?” Hitomi said with a frown, watching the adults and older siblings in the distance. “Why's everyone so serious?”

 

“Probably talking about `training',” Kiki said acidly. Hitomi stared at her friend.

 

“What do you mean?” she said in bewilderment. Kiki looked annoyed.

 

“I'm ten, does he really think I'm a baby?” she grumbled, and then she said aloud, “Nii-san was talking about “danger”. He said we're all in danger. When I asked him about it, he said it was just training.” She returned to looking annoyed. Hitomi's eyes narrowed.

 

“You mean they can tell the older kids but they can't tell us?” Michio said as he sat down next to the girls.

 

“They think we're still kids,” said 10-year-old Yoshinori. Michio couldn't help sniggering.

 

“Finished,” Takumi suddenly announced, holding today's painting aloft. Hitomi took it from her little cousin with a tender smile and looked at it. Her eyes widened in amazement.

 

“Wow, look, Kiki-chan!” she said in an awestruck voice. “It's your family!”

 

They all crowded around. Indeed, the newest picture showed InuYasha, Kagome, Isamu and Kiki in perfect detail, down to tiny slivers of claws on InuYasha and Isamu's hands. There was also, interestingly, a bundle in Kagome's arms, and although the outline of a head had been drawn, there was no face.

 

“That's the new baby,” he explained helpfully. “ `Cept it's not born yet, so I don't know what it looks like.”

 

“Wow,” Miroku said, “He really is good, isn't he?”

 

The kids all jumped. They hadn't realized the adults were approaching. Rin picked up her son's picture and passed it to Kagome with a smile. Then she reached down and grasped Takumi's wrists.

 

“Look at these inky hands,” she teased. “You're wasting all the ink your brother and cousin collected for you! Go wash up, and I'll pin your lovely picture up to dry. Once you get back, we can have dinner.” Takumi instantly sped off towards the river, followed by the other children who knew that dinner only happened to those with clean hands. Kohaku leaned down to tidy away the inks.

 

“The pup does have a talent,” InuYasha commented. “I hear they place a lot of values on artists in the capital.”

 

“Maybe when he's older,” Rin said. “He's only six.”

 

“And we have more pressing matters to attend to if we want him- or any of the others- to grow older,” Sango said gently, but firmly.

 

“Yes, but we have to wait for Myoga-jii-san,” Kagome said. “If it comes to running, we need to know where to run to.”

 

“Myoga-jii-san was here?” Isamu said with interest. He had only met the old flea a couple of times, when he was younger- when he was five, he'd freaked out after squashing the parasite, before Kagome showed him how Myoga popped back into shape and InuYasha had made some comments along the lines of “couldn't kill the old coward if you tried”.

 

“Yeah, and he'd better be back soon,” InuYasha said. “If he's found a safe place, then I might consider not squashing him when he goes for my neck.”

 

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Just for anyone who doesn't know, Kyoto was the capital of Japan until 1868, so would have been at the time this takes place, which is in about… (Consults self-made timeline based entirely on the fact that Kagome entered the well in May 1996) 1517, nearly 1518. Something like that. Short answer, when anyone refers to “The Capital”, they mean Kyoto.

 

Many thanks to Bert8813 for being my first MediaMiner reviewer! In answer to your question, Bert, the kids' descriptions are as follows:

Isamu has long black hair and golden eyes. He has human ears, not dog ones, but he does have fangs and claws. Beyond that, he looks quite a lot like InuYasha. He doesn't have his own sword yet; it's to be a 16th birthday present- if he does well enough in training.

Kiki also has long black hair and golden eyes as well, but she also has dog ears. She does have small fangs but no claws. She looks a bit like a little Kagome. She has shown small amounts of spiritual power on her human nights, but she can't use them as a hanyou without hurting herself.

Yuki and Haruka are identical twins. I don't think I've mentioned this, but the main difference is that Yuki cuts her hair very short (a little shorter than shoulder-length) while Haruka has hers long, generally in a low or high ponytail depending on whether or not she's in her taijiya gear. They both have brown eyes and black hair. Their exterminator uniforms are like their mother's, except Yuki's sash and armor are different shades of yellow and Haruka's are blue. Yuki got given Hiraikotsu upon completing her training, but Haruka got a new weapon- a special set of nunchaku with hidden blades in the ends.

Kazuki, in both looks and personality, is very much his father's son. He has brown eyes instead of purple, and has grown his hair long (he keeps it in a low ponytail like Miroku's, only Kazuki's goes down to his shoulder blades). He also has a weapon. It's a little like Kusarigama (Kohaku's weapon) except instead of a sickle on the end, it's a heavy metal ball studded with spikes (like a Morningstar or a mace). His taijiya armor is green, and he's actually had the black bodysuit made dark brown instead of black so that he's camouflaged.

Michio has purple eyes and short black hair. He just got his own weapon, a long-bladed halberd, though it's a bit big for him at the present. He does have taijiya armor, in orange.

Hitomi has quite long black hair and Miroku's eyes (her name is reference to them; Michio's eyes are slightly darker than Miroku's, but Hitomi's are the precise shade.) she is training as a taijiya, but isn't showing any inclination to a certain weapon. She has armor, in light purple.

Yoshinori has very light brown eyes and very dark brown hair (it looks black). His armor is red and, like Michio, he is showing a preference to long weapons such as staffs and halberds.

Takumi has black hair and very dark brown eyes. As he's still small, he's done some simple fitness training but no actual battle training. However, he's showing more inclination to arts than fighting, so he may not end up becoming a Taijiya.

Tsukiko has dark brown eyes and hair. Beyond that, since she's a couple months old, it's hard to tell.

 

Hope that answers your questions!

 

InuYasha is the property of Takahashi Rumiko-Sensei, and I claim no ownership of any of it. All couples not involving original characters will be strictly canon. Aside from Haruka, Yuki and Kazuki, I made up all of the kids, though since birthdates other than Kazuki's were never really stated in the manga, nor names, I've made these up as well. This fanfic will make little sense if you have not read the entire manga, and I'm afraid that to read the last twenty or so volumes you will have to (at the time of writing) venture into the internet, but I strongly suggest that you do buy the Tankoban volumes for yourself, so that Takahashi-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with her imagination. Anyway, hope you enjoy the fic. ^_-