InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter Fourteen

 

“Don't worry, Inuyasha,” Kagome said soothingly. “Miroku and Sango will back me up. We can't risk them sensing or seeing any youkai, and you and SesshoMaru fall quite visibly into that category.”

 

“Fine, but promise you'll retreat the second they get suspicious,” InuYasha said seriously.

 

“So we're agreed?” Kohaku said.

 

“We'd better tell the older ones what to do,” Sango said, gesturing over to the five teenagers who were in deep conversation. They walked over, Kazuki talking fast to finish explaining something to Mitsuko.

 

“… in her funeral pyre,” he was saying. “But it reappeared with her reincarnation.”

 

“Okaa-san,” Isamu added.

 

“Story time later, pups,” InuYasha cut in. “Listen, the army's going to be here within the next two days, so you're moving now. You five're gonna have to look after the little ones-“

 

“Us?” Yuki cut in. “What about you all? Aren't you coming?”

 

“Not yet,” Sango said. “We've come up with a diversion that should hopefully send them back west, which will give us all some extra time.”

 

“You're all staying? But what if they don't fall for it?” Kazuki said with a frown. “They'll attack you! Hell, they'll kill you!”

 

“Believe it or not, we aren't that bad at fighting,” Kohaku said dryly.

 

“Yeah, we've taken immensely uneven odds before and done fine,” Miroku said. “Endlessly regenerating zombies, airborne youkai- the only problem we'll have with this lot is that we're just too morally superior to kill mortals. KO's only.”

 

“Stop joking!” Isamu said. “There's no fucking way we're leaving you behind! We'll fight too-“

 

“No, you won't,” Kagome cut in quietly but sharply. “You are going to get out safe.”

 

“You're staying too?” Isamu said in shock. “Okaa-san, you're pregnant-“

 

“It's not showing yet, and our diversion plan hinges on a stranger that they'll believe unquestioningly,” Kagome said, cutting her son off again. “Which means either a houshi or a miko, and since they'll draft a houshi, I'm the only one left.”

 

“Don't worry, we'll keep her safe,” Miroku said. “We couldn't fight as well if our children were in danger, anyway.”

 

“So you have to take the time to get yourself and the younger ones as far away as possible,” Rin said. “Go all the way north, straight north, then move along the coastline until you can see an island, any island, although preferably a large one. If you can get past the coastal fishing villages undetected, the army will have no way of knowing what happened to you.”

 

“No more arguments,” InuYasha growled as all five teenagers opened their mouths at once. “Pack all the food, medicine and anything that you can't leave behind into a couple of packs. The five of you can all run at a good speed, but at least two of you'll be carrying your little brothers and sisters, and someone'll need to carry Kazeko. She's to beat to move on her own, but we can't leave her here.”

 

“Where'd SesshoMaru-sama go, anyway?” Kohaku said, looking over his shoulder.

 

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Kazeko resurfaced from the soft blackness into a world of pain. Only, it was less than before, much less. She was inside now, someone's hut, but not one of the ones from her village.

 

“You are awake?”

 

SesshoMaru's voice pulled her back into full consciousness. She groaned as she tried to sit up, and nearly fell over. A strong arm steadied her.

 

“Be careful. You're badly hurt.”

 

She managed to open her eyes and focus, and saw SesshoMaru watching her. Though his face was still stoic, she could tell that he was concerned.

 

“Where's…” she murmured, “Where's Otou-san? What happened? Did…” Suddenly it dawned. She was in the village where SesshoMaru's friends lived. So… “Did you save me?”

 

“Of course.” SesshoMaru sat down next to her, satisfied that she could sit up on her own now. She could, though she still felt weak. Her arm was in a sling. “But his armies are moving soon. You are going to leave here tonight with your friend Mitsuko and the other children. A few of us are staying to divert the soldiers and, if necessary, fight them to buy you all time to get away.”

 

“No way!” Kazeko said. “A few of you against Otou-san's army?! It may not be the main force but it's still several hundred strong!”

 

To Kazeko's surprise, SesshoMaru was smiling slightly. “So there's seven of us against less than a thousand of them?”

 

“Seven?” Kazeko replied angrily. “The numbers are over fifty to one as it is! The odds are too uneven!”

 

“I know that it sounds that way, but it's a little more balanced considering one of our number's powers don't have much effect on humans,” SesshoMaru replied. Kazeko gaped at him. “Kazeko, all of us who stayed to fight have faced much worse odds before, more skilled opponents. If it makes you feel any better, there's a good chance that there'll be no fighting at all.” Kazeko hesitated.

 

“You'll leave to catch us up as soon as you can?” Kazeko said. SesshoMaru nodded, then stood and drew a sword, scabbard and all, from his belt. She'd noticed before that he had two, and he'd drawn the blue one. He placed it on the pallet next to her. “No, I can't take your sword,” She protested, but SesshoMaru refused to take it back.

 

“I do not need it,” he said. “It is of no use in battle. I have Bakusaiga for that.” He touched the hilt of the brown sword with the odd runes all along the blade. “That sword is the Tenseiga, a blade of healing. It will protect you in my stead.” Kazeko slowly reached out with her right hand and grasped the scabbard.

 

“Arigatou,” she said quietly. “I promise you that I will look after it until we meet again in the North.”

 

“Until we meet again, then,” SesshoMaru said, inclining his head as a boy wearing a dark brown bodysuit and green armor walked into the hut, wrapping something like an extremely large sling around his chest.

 

“Nice to meet you, Kazeko-san,” he said formally. “My name's Kazuki and I'm going to be your one-man carriage for the duration of this high-tailed flight. Ready to go?”

 

SesshoMaru held out a hand to help her stand enough to sit in the sling Kazuki was using to carry her more comfortably. She squeezed the inu-youkai's hand, and couldn't help smiling when he squeezed very slightly back.

 

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“Holding on tight?” Isamu asked Michio. The boy nodded, squeezing his grip around Isamu's neck a little tighter and wrapping his ankles around Isamu's waist. Isamu hefted Michio's halberd and tied it around his chest, using it to secure Michio in place in the event that he should lose his grip. Kiki and Hitomi were hugging their respective mothers and crying. Kagome was talking softly to Kiki to soothe her, whilst Sango pressed a small metal sword of unknown origins (her own was in her belt) into her daughter's hands, telling her to look after herself and they'd all see each other again in the north.

 

Mitsuko had tied her long hair into a two-toned ponytail before wrapping Akira tightly to her back. The little boy had also intelligently wrapped his sister's ponytail around his little wrists. Yoshinori was securing Tsukiko to his chest with a sling similar to the one that Kazuki was using to carry the injured Kazeko. Mitsuko would be carrying him and Takumi in her arms. Rin had been very worried about being separated from Tsukiko when the child was only a few months old, but the little girl was partially weaned and so long as one of her older cousins could bargain for a little milk from a village, she should be all right. Takumi, for his part, had been very quiet after hugging his parents goodbye, while Michio and Yoshinori had stern looks on their faces, clearly deciding that, as “men”, they had to be strong.

 

Yuki and Haruka were both clutching large bundles of food and other supplies. Haruka had readjusted the holsters for her nunchaku on her hips so access to them would not be impeded by bundles of supplies, but Yuki had very insistently pressed Hiraikotsu back into her mother's hands, on the basis that “I'd prefer you to crack heads than to get yours cracked.” Instead, slung across her back was Yoshinori's seven-foot teak staff, the weapon being too long for him to use at his current height, but he would grow into it soon. Mitsuko couldn't carry it because of the inscriptions carved along it, giving the staff extra power against youkai. Kazuki had quietly put Tenseiga into his belt and slung his ball-and-chain into the appropriate holsters, which had been moved to his back to give Kazeko room.

 

Isamu was stooping to pick up Kiki and Hitomi when his father tapped him on the head with something and, when he stood, pressed it into his hands. Isamu nearly dropped it when he realized that it was Tessaiga.

 

“Are you joking, Otou-san?” he said in mixed awe and incredulity. “You can't give me Tessaiga! You're the one fighting an army-“

 

“Listen, pup, Tessaiga's no good against humans,” InuYasha growled, “whereas you're gonna be running into a lot of scared and fleeing youkai. Some of `em'll have remained decent, some won't have, and there's always the wild youkai. You need the blade more than I do. When it comes to humans,” he added, to Isamu's reopening mouth, “I'm better off with my fists, and as for youkai, I don't think there's one left alive that Kagome couldn't wipe the floor with. Take it. When we get to the islands, we'll track down that old baka and get your blade, all right?” Isamu finally gave in and slid Tessaiga into his belt, a little overawed at getting such a famously powerful sword to use, even if it was only temporary.

 

“I am leaving for the rendezvous point,” SesshoMaru said as the littler children climbed into their carrier's arms, the boys on the verge of tears and the girls already falling. He bowed his head and, seeming to most of them to be mainly speaking to Kazeko, “Good luck. We will meet again on Hokkaido.” In an instant, he was gone.

 

“I'd better follow him, the plan's fucked if they come through the village and see me,” Inuyasha muttered. Kagome nodded and kissed him on the cheek. “Look after each other. If you ain't all on Hokkaido, the living ones're gonna pay.” With a wave, he ran off towards the east.

 

“We'd better move, then,” Isamu said. The time for hugging and tearful goodbyes had passed; there was a dreadful urgency now, as the plan seemed to have been set in motion by InuYasha and SesshoMaru's departure. There was now already a feeling that they were falling behind. They could only hope that all would go to plan, and they would be together again in Hokkaido. Isamu could only place his faith in the childish belief that nothing could hurt his parents, that they wouldn't lie to him and they'd all be together again very soon. With a last look back at his mother, Isamu turned and ran, through the forests to the north.

 

“Arigatou Gozaimasu,” said Mitsuko, a little tearily, “for everything. I pray our paths meet again on Hokkaido.” Kazuki touched her arm and they both took off after Isamu. Haruka and Yuki both nodded to their parents and followed. The adults were left behind, at the edge of the fields. The village was empty, the villagers taking refuge around the lake, safe from any fighting which would happen. Kirara hopped up onto Miroku's shoulder, bristling with excitement to be entering the fray again after all these years. Sango passed him Hiraikotsu and pulled the neck of her long kimono a little closer, covering the Taijiya gear underneath.

 

“I guess we'd better move too, Sango,” Kagome said, but she also found it immensely difficult to tear her gaze away from the trees where her children had vanished, and in that moment it seemed almost as if it would be forever.

 

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InuYasha walked into the canyon mouth and sprinted up the cliff-side. There were loose boulders on all sides on the thin canyon entrance; its size and instability would be their greatest asset if things came to a fight. He cracked his knuckles in anticipation. Of course, he didn't want to fight, but if he did he'd make sure that a damn sight less of the bastards would be going after his kids afterwards. Anyway, he hadn't had a real fight, not one against someone he could really hurt (he always had to pull punches with the pups or Kagome would purify him into her era), not for a long time.

 

SesshoMaru was standing near the canyon mouth, clearly ready to send several tons of heavy stone death at the first soldiers to come through. InuYasha knew that his half-brother hated bandits, and that he had even more reason to hate Yamazaki, but the pure animosity he bore for all of the soldiers was a little odd. InuYasha had been very surprised that the bastard had consented to work with them to fight the armies. That his hatred was strong enough to work with a “worthless hanyou” and several “useless humans” had floored InuYasha, as had his determination to save the youkai in the south.

 

“Why do you care so much about this?” he asked bluntly. “All offence intended, it's beyond weird that you care so much for all these `peaceful youkai'. I mean, the slaughter's terrible and all, but why do you actually care?”

 

SesshoMaru wasn't looking at him, but the hairs on InuYasha's neck prickled as the tall youkai's aura shifted very slightly, clearly giving the message that InuYasha should be glad that he wasn't looking at him. Still facing away, SesshoMaru finally spoke.

 

“I have seen such genocide once before,” he said, very quietly, “and have no desire to see it repeated.”

 

“In one of Totosai's less sane moments, he rambled on about some massacre in the West when I was a pup. Is that it?”

 

“It happened only a short while before you were born,” SesshoMaru said, but did not offer more information and it felt to InuYasha like pushing for it would be asking for trouble that he didn't need, not right now. He just shrugged and sat down, looking towards the village rather than the valley. It was unnatural and always made him a little guilty, because he'd made it. Gokuryuuha valley was more than a little self-explanatory in origin. It made him think of the countless armies of the dead humans. And they were about to face a far more terrifying enemy- living ones.

 

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Gokuryuuha was the ultimate attack of the evil sword Sou'unga, which possessed InuYasha at the beginning of the third movie. Like a large twister, it obliterated a good-sized crevasse near the village, and for that matter the village itself (The villagers having quickly made themselves scarce when InuYasha turned up in full-youkai mode).

 

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. ^_-