InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chaoter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

Chapter Sixteen

 

The farmers began leaving the fields as the sun lowered on the horizon. They did not want to be outside the village after dark, not with so many dark youkai floating around. They stopped as a young man stepped out of the woods. He was laden thick with bags, a baby in his arms.

 

“Please,” he called, “Can anyone spare some milk? She's too young to eat solids.”

 

Several of the older mothers of the village instantly crowded around him, one bringing a small pail of milk.

 

“The poor thing!” one woman said. “Where's her mother?”

 

“Gone,” the stranger said, looking infinitely weary. The women all clucked their tongues sympathetically and fed the baby some milk. “Can I trouble you for a little in a bamboo tube, for the road?” he asked one of the women. “We must be moving on.”

 

“But you can't!” the women cried. “Stay here tonight, we'll help you take care of the little one.”

 

“I can't,” the man said. “I must make it north, to my parents, before winter arrives. I have a long way to go and I'm sure that I can make it through the forest before sunset. Please, I do not want to be out in the dark.”

 

After some time of pleading, the women finally consented to give the man a couple of bamboo tubes full of milk. “Mind to check the temperature, cool it in a stream or some such,” the women warned and, after several more entreaties to the man to stay, he moved on into the forest, waving and shouting his thanks.

 

Because everyone had been watching and fussing over the poor widower, nobody noticed a few dark shapes briefly flash past along the edges of the fields.

 

Once the village was out of sight, Kazuki dropped his packs onto the ground and said aloud, “Dammit, Ane-ue, how the hell can you run with these?”

 

“Do you have any idea how much Hiraikotsu weighs?” Yuki asked, grabbing the packs and leading Kazuki back to the campsite, muttering “wimp” under her breath.

 

“I got spare milk, too,” Kazuki announced as he handed the now-sleeping Tsukiko to Haruka, “enough for a couple of days, unless- does Akira need some too?” he asked, now addressing Mitsuko, who shook her head.

 

“No, he has his teeth, so he needs meat now,” she explained. “Since tigers are carnivorous, I'm afraid we can't really eat vegetables and such, not unless it's with meat.”

 

“Then be glad you've got a hunter,” Isamu said, dropping several rabbits by the fire, having evidently gone hunting while Kazuki was playing the “poor young widower (with baby)” card.

 

“At least we know how to feed Tsukiko,” Kazuki said. “Honestly, they all but gave me a cow. Ladies of a certain age seem unable to stop themselves mothering every baby in reach, let alone one without a mother of its own.”

 

“Let's cook the rabbits. I'm hungry!” Michio complained, pulling out his little knife and starting to skin one of the biggest ones. Yoshinori followed suit while Kiki and Hitomi recoiled, looking horrified at the fluffy little bunnies lying dead upon the ground.

 

“That's disgusting,” Hitomi whimpered. Haruka pulled Isamu aside.

 

“Next time, better clean the rabbits before you bring them back, or take the boys with you and have them do it,” she muttered. “I don't know if Onee-chan and Kiki-chan will be able to eat, now.” Isamu looked at his sister and sister-in-law-to-be's ashen complexions and nodded. Mitsuko had picked up Akira and Tsukiko and given them to the girls to look after, effectively taking their minds off of the dead rabbits. Kazeko was digging one-handed through the bag containing medical supplies. Kazuki walked over and, sticking both hands in, pulled out a tube containing some medicine for bruises.

 

“Kagome-san said to rub some of that in every evening, to stop the bruises swelling,” she explained.

 

“Want me to massage it in for you?” asked Kazuki with a grin that clearly said that he knew he was going to get slapped for it, but was saying it anyway. Isamu ignored the stereo crack of two hands meeting the same face.

 

“Here, let me give you a hand,” Mitsuko said, unscrewing the lid as Kazuki walked away, making a huge show of feeling rejected and putting the younger children into hysterics.

 

“Baka,” Yuki muttered with a faint grin. Isamu and Haruka both laughed too, but there was an underlying tenseness to the banter- a knowledge that they were only laughing so loudly to keep their younger siblings happy, to be strong when they were still so very afraid.

 

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Haruka leaned back against Isamu's chest, staring at the stars and listening to the younger kids' deep breathing. Yuki, Mitsuko and Kazeko were all lying down, but they had their eyes open, staring at the fire. Isamu and Kazuki were both sitting upright, leaning against trees, and Haruka had sought the comfort of her fiancée's arms. The fear that she had hidden from the younger ones she was willing to show in front of him, her siblings, Mitsuko, who she had become such friends with, and even Kazeko, whom she barely knew. Isamu was sharing the same fears, if the way he was continually fidgeting with the hilt of Tessaiga was any indication.

 

“Will they... really be all right?” Mitsuko asked hesitantly, finally opening the topic for discussion. Kazuki sighed deeply.

 

“They will be,” he said uncertainly, as if he was convincing himself as much as the others. “They have to be.”

 

“We have to believe that they will be,” Isamu said. “Even if they do get hurt-” Haruka couldn't help flinching at the thought, and he held her a little tighter- “going back will be of no help to them. In fact, it would just make all of their work useless.”

 

“We have to look after each other and the littler ones,” Yuki said firmly. “We all have to get to Hokkaido together. We'll see them again when we get there, I'm sure of it. Otou-san's right, if even half the stories they've told us are true, then they've faced a lot worse. And I have no reason to believe that they ever lied to us.”

 

“What are the stories?” Mitsuko asked. “I mean, you only told me as far as InuYasha-san being sealed.”

 

“We should start over, for Kazeko's sake,” Isamu said, glancing over at the injured girl who was staring into the fire as though lost in thought. She must have been listening, though, because she looked up at her name.

 

“Stories?” she asked, with interest. “About what?”

 

“Shouldn't we sleep at some point?” Yuki asked.

 

“Do you think you'd be able to sleep?” Haruka asked.

 

“We can talk until the fire goes out,” Kazuki said. “Isamu and Mitsuko might be able to run forever, but we lowly mortals do need rest to keep it up, may I remind you.” Isamu punched him in the arm.

 

“Sounds as good a plan as any,” Yuki said. “Anyway, it all starts with this miko called Kikyo and the Shikon No Tama...”

 

“Wait, we never explained about the Shikon No Tama, did we?” Haruka interjected. Mitsuko shook her head. “All right, it actually starts hundreds of years ago, with this miko called Midoriko...”

 

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From high up on the mountain, at the far end of Gokuryuuha valley, they could see the sea, and miles of land all around. It was a fairly good place to stay out of the army's radar, at least for a while, but it made SesshoMaru uncomfortable because it reminded him of InuYama, and a different sea, and those who had watched it with him and never would again.

 

He had elected, to varying levels of surprise, to remain with InuYasha and his friends, partly because it meant that he could keep an eye on the army- as far as he could tell, they were making camp and licking their wounds.

 

Same as us, then, he thought as the wind shifted, bringing him the faint scent of the blood of the miko and the Nekomata, though both scents were much diminished. Both of them would be fine, although the Nekomata seemed too weak to change into her large form and as such their progress would be slowed a little. It made SesshoMaru impatient. He wanted to know what had happened to the children, to Kazeko.

 

He closed his eyes as the wind blew stronger. Kazeko. He hadn't really thought of it- or perhaps he had refused to think of it- before InuYasha had brought it up, but it was true. In face, scent and voice she was exactly like her. Like Kagura.

 

There were strong parallels- her strength of character, her pride, and yet the paradoxical gentleness in her soul- even the bastard of a father, for Kami's sake- it was all familiar, all something he had long abandoned the hope of ever recapturing.

 

Could she truly have returned? SesshoMaru wondered with a wry smile. And as a human, no less.

 

Still, before he had thought about the possibility of reincarnation, he had, some part of him, longed to see the girl again, to feel the kindness and peace that she brought him. You did get second chances, sometimes, even if you definitely didn't deserve them.

 

He gripped Bakusaiga's hilt, and thought of Tenseiga. It had not saved Kagura before- because she was not dead yet, because of the shouki, because of the darkness in her very blood because of Naraku, he did not know. It had failed him once, and he could only pray that it would not do so again.

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“These things are horrible,” Sango said angrily, staring at the bullet that she had carefully pried from Kirara's side. Most had dislodged and fallen out when Kirara transformed, but this one had gotten wedged in and had been hurting her. Rin gently wrapped the last of the little cat's wounds. Kirara mewed faintly and curled up to sleep. Sango was grateful that none of the wounds were themselves fatal, but they still had to be careful of blood loss. Kirara would not be able to fly or transform for some time, but it could have been worse, as Myoga had pointed out (although not, it must be said, until the battle was over and all of them were safely out of harm's way).

 

“Though this army is newly formed, they already have experience,” Myoga said. “In Yamazaki's haste, all but a few of the gunmen were forced to fight as infantrymen instead of being given time to unwrap and set up their guns. He normally goes in with a carefully constructed plan, using ranks of gunmen and archers rather than foot soldiers. I saw them take out a clan of youkai on their way here without unsheathing a single sword.”

 

“I suppose they weren't expecting anyone other than SesshoMaru-sama and Kazeko-san,” Kohaku said. “They thought it would be easy.”

 

“Arrogant bastards,” InuYasha grumbled around the cloth in his mouth. He was tearing an old kimono up to make a sling for Kagome, whose shoulder wound had stopped bleeding but was liable to tear open if she kept moving her arm.

 

“We made him angry, and angry men make mistakes,” Miroku said, “but we can't count on it twice.”

 

“You can't seriously think that Yamazaki's still alive?” Rin said incredulously. “Without him, the army will either have to find a new leader or go home, and with the number of casualties they sustained, I'd bank on the latter.”

 

“Then we can move at sunup,” InuYasha said. “We'd better find the pups and keep moving, `cos even if those soldiers go home, by spring there'll be a new bastard in charge and a new campaign, so we need to be well out of it before it gets cold.”

 

“I just hope that they haven't run into any trouble,” Kagome said anxiously.

 

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“... wounds are serious, Hayashi-sama, but the will to live is incredible!”

 

“Is it will to live or rage, I wonder?” Hayashi said, striding into the tent where the great general lay bleeding. Several monks were washing and wrapping the man's wounds. There was a huge, deep slash across his chest, the skin sewn clumsily together like a torn kimono. Yamazaki's face was screwed up in pain, but he did not utter a sound.

 

“Yamazaki-sama, it is Hayashi,” he said, bowing before the injured man. Yamazaki opened one eye, enough to glance at the captain.

 

“Hayashi,” he muttered quietly. “Were you killed too, or do I remain among the living?”

 

“I rather hope that I'm not dead,” Hayashi said with a smile, “for I have a great plan, one to get the bulk of the army farther north, to lie in wait for these impudent youkai and slaughter them once they let their guard down.” Yamazaki closed his eye again.

 

“Tell me tomorrow,” he murmured, “I am so weary. If I die in the night, you are general, and can do whatever you please.”

 

“It would please me to finish your great work, Yamazaki-sama,” Hayashi said with another bow. He withdrew from the tent as a monk moved towards the general with a cupful of some potion.

 

“Drink this, Yamazaki-sama,” he urged. “It will give you a painless sleep.”

 

Hayashi moved onwards through the camp. It was almost entirely an infirmary, as there was barely a man uninjured and over a third of the men were dead. They all treated each others' wounds, lying in the open air, for there was no shelter- the village had been destroyed. Some of the villagers were helping with the care of the more seriously wounded. Hayashi had already apologised to the village elders, explaining that they had not known that the village was inhabited, for the villagers had been hiding in the forest. The elders said that they had been hiding from the youkai, but Hayashi suspected that they were lying, and he had heard the villagers whisper that they should not be assisting the men who had attacked their friends and their beloved miko.

 

“Sato!” he called, and the young man, his assistant, ran over to him with a roll of parchment. “What are the numbers?”

 

“Sixty more men have died of their wounds since the first assessment, and many more are well on the way,” he said sadly. “All of the living are in some way injured, at least bruises and headaches, and worst crushed and severed limbs. A few men are literally holding their stomachs in, Hayashi-sama. That tall silver youkai dealt some of the worst damage; the others only seem to have knocked people out.”

 

“Heh. Trying to be merciful, are they?” Hayashi said scornfully. “I saw a monk and three of those dark warriors in the field. What do they monks say about them?”

 

“Our monks say that the warriors and the monk were human, sir,” Sato said doubtfully, “but they were inhumanly strong and fast. The male warrior, did you see the chain on his weapon? Definitely not something of mortals, in my opinion, or the giant boomerang one of the women was swinging around.”

 

“So, four mortals and two youkai?”

 

“Three, sir. There was another silver one in red clothes; you must not have seen him. He tore the hands off of several of the gunners, and destroyed the guns, too. All in all, Hayashi-sama, we don't have the men or resources to do anything but go home.”

 

“Yes,” Hayashi said with a dark smile, “that's what they think too.”

 

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I'm having to put the story on hiatus for a while because I'm getting a new computer, and I'm having to transfer all of my files on to memory sticks so that I can put it on the new computer, so I won't be able to upload anything. And yes, the monk sensed Kagome's baby. At this point, she's just over four months along, so it would have been faint, but there. He didn't know that she was pregnant- he probably just thought that she had been concealing her aura.

 

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. ^_-