InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter Seventeen

 

InuYasha was slowly waking up when a foot was applied to his head, accelerating the process. He sat up straight, blinking in the pre-dawn light, and glared at his half-brother.

 

“What the fuck was that for?” he growled, rubbing his head. “Why are you still here, anyway?”

 

“Shut up, baka. There have been scouts coming all the way up to the beach, they must be planning to ship all of the soldiers back south- Presumably, few of them are in any state to walk that far. At any rate, it would be prudent to be gone by sunup.”

 

“Shit,” InuYasha murmured, partly because he'd fallen asleep and hadn't noticed the soldiers being nearby (what if they'd climbed up to the cave?), and partly because he was going to have to take SesshoMaru's advice, dammit. The bastard was right, not that he'd ever say it. They had to move soon.

 

“Wake up, bouzo,” he said, shaking Miroku. The monk stretched and yawned.

 

“Did I fall asleep?” he muttered, slapping his cheeks and reaching down to shake Sango gently. “Must be my old age, I was trying to keep watch.”

 

Not the only one, InuYasha thought, now feeling very pissed off at himself. At one time, he'd have woken up if someone breathed too loudly within a mile of him, but he hadn't heard several humans blundering about too close by for comfort. The peace, the safety he'd felt for the past couple of decades wasn't something he'd trade for the world, but it did worry him that it meant that he could no longer tell when danger was nearby.

 

He carefully lifted Kagome upright to wake her, not wanting to shake her injured shoulder. Miroku was also waking up Rin and Kohaku as Sango began unwrapping a few late-summer fruits.

 

“Start eating, we'd better move soon,” she said, tossing a couple to InuYasha. He caught them as Kagome yawned and stepped away from him, awake enough to hold herself up, and wincing slightly as the pain in her shoulder woke up too. When Rin offered one of the fruits in SesshoMaru's general direction, he ignored her, watching where the village had been in case of more scouting parties.

 

“Should we stick to the coast or move inland?” Kohaku asked, tying on his armor and placing various small hidden weapons and capsules into place.

 

“Inland,” InuYasha said, taking a bite out of his fruit as Kagome grabbed hers. “We don't know where their boats are headed or coming from, and although there's a chance they won't be here for a while, they could just be waiting nearby. Anyway, we can't risk `em seeing us.”

 

“Besides, the children are inland,” Kagome added. “I want to join up with them again as soon as possible.”

 

“Humm hhmhumh,” Sango said, which probably would have been “good idea” if she hadn't stuck her fruit into her mouth to keep it out of the way as she tied her own armor into place. Rin was wrapping a pack around her shoulders, Miroku and Kohaku doing likewise, but SesshoMaru still hadn't moved, still watching the enemy. Then he turned to face them.

 

“We leave now,” he said. “They've started moving.”

 

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Kazuki drifted back into consciousness in fits and starts, which seemed to coincide with small bouts of rhythmic pain. He forced his eyes open and groggily watched Isamu poke him methodically in the arm. Upon noticing that his friend was awake, the pokes turned into punches.

 

“All right, I'm up,” Kazuki grumbled. Dawn was just thinking about breaking. “Kami, when did you sleep?”

 

“Someone had to do the night watch,” Isamu said, “and besides, I couldn't get to sleep.”

 

“Because of the combined feelings of trepidation, fear and worry,” Kazuki asked, stretching, “or because Haruka fell asleep in your lap?” Isamu punched him again in the arm- hard this time- before going to wake up Yuki. Haruka was tending a simmering pot of rice, which looked a little small for thirteen people.

 

“Mitsuko and Akira are having the last of last night's rabbit,” she said when he came over to stare balefully at the pot, “and this is just for the older five of us. We're going to eat quick while I do a second lot for the littler ones. That way, we can pack while they're eating and be gone by the time the sun's cleared the horizon.”

 

“Kami, I could just sleep until then,” Yuki said, tying on her shoulder pads. “I mean, we've done hour-long endurance runs before- Okaa-san's either a slavedriver or the old taijiya clan were demented- but all day is quiet a stretch.”

 

“We're not going that fast, and we can stop around lunchtime,” Isamu said. “The main thing is to keep out of sight and ahead of any soldiers.”

 

“Grab your bowls,” Haruka said, ladling some rice into her own, “Then get your own food.”

 

“And anyone taking more than their fair share gets a broken elbow,” Yuki said, staring very deliberately at Kazuki as she said it.

 

Michio sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as they were eating, Mitsuko tending to the second round of rice while the last couple of rabbit legs cooked.

 

“ `r' we moving soon?” he murmured, then brightened up when he saw the rice. “Great, breakfast!”

 

“Wake everyone else up,” Yuki said. “Gently. And leave Tsukiko and Akira to sleep. The sooner the others are up, the sooner you eat.” Michio instantly starting poking Yoshinori rhythmically in the arm, making Kazuki snort rice out of his nose.

 

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They were long gone from the campsite by the time the sun had cleared the horizon, the campfire buried to hide any signs of it being there. Those being carried had mostly fallen asleep again, except for Kazeko who, like the five runners, was too lost in her own thoughts, worries and fears to return to sleep once she had awakened. No-one talked, all following Isamu silently, with no questions if he abruptly changed course- he could smell villages and travelers miles before they saw them, and led the soundless detours accordingly.

 

The sun was rapidly climbing the sky, and around mid-morning the younger ones were beginning to wake up. They chattered to each other from time to time, but the teenagers remained focused, and so when Isamu stopped unexpectedly in the middle of a forest, they were able to follow suit in short order. Haruka raised a finger to her lips as the children raised a clamor, trying to find out what had happened.

 

“I sense it,” Yuki said quietly.

 

“Them,” Kazuki corrected. “They're close together.” He placed Kazeko on her feet. She swayed slightly as she tried to keep her weight off of her twisted ankle.

 

“They don't feel that powerful,” Haruka said thoughtfully, pulling Michio from Isamu's back as he set Kiki and Hitomi on the ground. Mitsuko was also putting Rin's children down, as Kazeko took Akira from her back.

 

“I smell snake,” the tigress said. The children backed up against a particularly large tree. Kazuki handed Tenseiga to Kazeko as she limped over to join them. The other five put their backs to their younger siblings, watching the trees for a hint of movement.

 

“Fuck it, just show yourselves already,” Isamu called. “You know you were going to anyway, considering how long you were following us without attacking.”

 

“Puppy wantssss to play the guard dog, eh?” came a hissing voice. Three men came walking through the trees with a very odd gait. It was when they came closer that Isamu realized that it wasn't that they'd been walking weirdly- they were slithering.

 

Waist to neck, they were humanoid, though their skin was green and scaly, the largest one with the darkest hue. Below the waist, their bodies morphed into twenty feet of thick, scaly tail, and their heads too were like a snake's- flat, with slit pupils and wide mouths.

 

“Push off, snake,” Isamu said, “or we'll shred you.”

 

“Tough talk fffffor a hanyou and sssome humanssss,” the lead snake hissed mockingly.

 

“Hello?” Mitsuko said, waving sarcastically.

 

“Look! Babiessss!” one of the lesser snakes whispered loudly, gleefully nudging his friend in the side and pointing to Akira and Tsukiko. Takumi and Hitomi clutched the babies that they were holding, while Michio and Yoshinori moved in front of them, Michio carefully holding his overlong halberd and Yoshinori drawing his sword. Kiki flattened her ears as she watched the hungry gaze of the snakes, and Kazeko, supporting herself on Tenseiga, moved in front of the scared children, hiding them from view.

 

“Children are tassssty,” the lead snake said with a cold smile, “but babiessss are a delicasssssy. Adultsss have sssuch a nasssty flavour, so you ssssixxxx leave the little onessss and we won't bother killing you.” Isamu narrowed his eyes at the snake. Unlike his lackeys, Isamu got the worrying impression that this one might be intelligent.

 

“Like hell,” Kazuki said, nonchalantly swinging his mace at the leader's head. He ducked it with an angry hiss, and the other two lunged forwards.

 

One went straight for Isamu, Yuki and Haruka. Yuki shifted her grip on Yoshinori's staff as Haruka extended the blades in her nunchaku.

 

“Watch the tail!” Yuki screamed, and they all jumped aside as the thick, twenty-foot-long tail whipped past its owner's head and slammed into the ground where they had been seconds before. Isamu caught and acrid stench as the ground sizzled.

 

“It's poisonous!” he warned.

 

The other lackey had attacked Kazuki, who flung his mace into the air. It came down fast, slamming into the middle of the snake's tail. The spikes of the iron ball, aided by the force of its fall, tore through the tail, cutting it off. The snake howled in pain and lunged at Kazuki with its mouth open, showing long fangs.

 

“Watch out!” Mitsuko screamed, leaping up and delivering a midair kick to the snake's head. Something crunched. The snake fell to the side, missing his target of Kazuki's head but the fangs still scarping his forearm. Kazuki pulled back, hissing in pain as he tied the chain of his mace tightly around the arm, cutting off the blood flow- if the barbs on the tail were poisonous, the fangs certainly were.

 

Haruka whipped one end of the nunchaku at the snake, the gleaming blade embedding itself in its bulbous yellow eye. The snake screamed as she pulled it out again, and went for her, mouth open to bite, but Yuki intercepted it by shoving the blessed staff into its mouth. It screamed again as its throat sizzled and its fangs withered.

 

Figuring the twins could handle the snake, Isamu went to help Mitsuko, but then remembered the lead snake. In the confusion of the battle, it had slipped past and was now stalking Kazeko, who was backing away, the children behind her, holding up Tenseiga- she didn't know that it couldn't hurt the snake. Isamu changed course and went for the dark green serpent, but it was faster than him and was raising its tail to crush Kazeko. He drew Tessaiga and slashed it, aiming at the tail, but the blade turned white and shot energy forth- the Kaze No Kizu.

 

The flames enfulged the snake, obliterating it. The snake fighting Mitsuko was distracted, shrieking for its leader, but the tigress took advantage of the moment to bring her claws down and behead it. The one that had been fighting Yuki and Haruka had already vanished beneath Yoshinori's staff.

 

But the scar kept going. At the angle Isamu was at, they were going straight for Kazeko and the children.

 

There was a bright flash of blue light, and the Kaze No Kizu disappeared. Kazeko and the others were unharmed.

 

Yuki whacked Isamu on the head, mastering her rage just enough not to use the holy staff. “What the hell were you doing?” she screamed. “The Kaze No Fucking Kizu? You could have torn them apart!”

 

“I've never done it before,” Isamu responded, a little shakily. “Otou-san let me use it once and I tried, but it wouldn't work. Totosai-sama said that youkai blades are very picky about who they work properly for, and you can't get any real power out of someone else's blade. I was just going to cut the snake's tail off.”

 

“Maybe it's because you really, really wanted to protect them,” Haruka said. “Isn't that what Totosai-sama said Tessaiga and Tenseiga were, really? Blades of defence. It'll not work for anyone but its master unless all they want to do with it is defend, not attack.”

 

“It's a miracle they aren't in shreds!” yelled Yuki, still determined to be furious.

 

“I think it was Tenseiga,” Kazeko said quietly. She was still holding up the sword. The blade was glowing bright blue, the same blue glow that had dispelled the Kaze No Kizu. As they watched, the glow faded and died. Kazeko slowly resheathed it. “It put up a barrier. It did it by itself, I don't know how it did it…”

 

“Tenseiga and Tessaiga are brothers,” Isamu explained, “both forged from my grandfather's fang. Okaa-san said that they've been known to have odd reactions to each other, like Tenseiga putting up shields against Tessaiga's power. I'm not sure it'll be any good against other swords, though.”

 

“Let's not count on that, though, okay?” Kazuki said weakly. “No matter what I'm holding, I think the last thing that I want to see is a Kaze No Kizu coming at me…”

 

“Normally, it's the last thing you see, period,” Yuki growled.

 

“Oh, we need to get some medicine into that arm!” Mitsuko said, suddenly remembering Kazuki's injury. “Before the poison gets into your system.”

 

“Or my arm dies and falls off,” Kazuki added, gesturing to the unusual tourniquet around his arm.

 

Kiki, Hitomi and Takumi were all shaking with fear, but Michio and Yoshinori were both exclaiming that that was the coolest thing that had ever happened to them. Isamu watched Tessaiga transform into a rusty old blade and reverentially put it back into its sheathe.

 

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This chapter is dedicated to my brand spanking new computer! I love my parents. Happy Birthday to me!

 

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. ^_-