InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 18 ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter Eighteen

 

“Come in, quickly,” the priestess said, looking intently down the hill in case there were any travelers coming to the temple. Thankfully, because it was very near to winter, the seven before her were the only ones to be seen in the fading evening light.

 

“Thank you, Nazuna,” Kagome said, as they slipped into the temple's interior.

 

“Stay here as long as you want. I won't tell the army that you were here,” she said, closing the door behind SesshoMaru.

 

“We owe you one,” InuYasha said, making for where he vaguely remembered the guest rooms to be.

 

“No you don't,” Nazuna said, lighting a lamp and leading walking ahead of him. “I never really repaid you for getting rid of the spider-heads.”

 

“That was twenty years ago,” Kagome said. Nazuna shook her head.

 

“It was a big deed and I remembered it. Besides, I recognized you two straight away. You barely look a day older.”

 

“Are you still alone here?” Kagome asked.

 

The older miko- though she was really only a year older than Kagome, she looked much more- nodded. “Ever since… Ousho-sama. I don't have much to do in the winter but keep the place clean, and people some up from the nearby villages every day to bring me my meals. But no-one will know that you are here.” She stopped and slid a door open. “You can stay in one of the interior rooms rather than the guest rooms. The people who come in the mornings would see you if you stayed there.”

 

“Thank you so much,” Sango said, setting down Hiraikotsu.

 

“Not at all. I owe your friends a lot. Sleep well; I don't have food enough to spare, I'm afraid.”

 

“We couldn't put you to the trouble,” Miroku insisted. “We have sufficient supplies. You've done more than enough.” They all bowed their heads to Nazuna as she closed the door and left.

 

“Are you certain that she will not tell the army of us?” SesshoMaru enquired, sitting down against the wall near the door.

 

“I'm sure she won't,” Kagome said as InuYasha rolled out a couple of pallets. “We helped her out a long time ago… actually, as I remember, that was the first time I saw you in human form, wasn't it?” she said, turning to her mate. He rolled his eyes.

 

“Kami, but that night was a disaster,” he complained. He turned his back on the others as he winked at Kagome; they both remembered what he had said to her in the pre-dawn, when they had both thought that he would die from the spider's poison.

 

“Was that to do with the `spider-heads'?” Kohaku asked, pulling off his armor and piling it by his own pallet.

 

“What happened?” Rin asked, sounding interested.

 

InuYasha starting piling wood from the log pile in the corner onto the fireplace in the middle of the room. “You tell the story,” he said. Kagome raised her eyebrows. “You were the one who was conscious for most of it,” he added. She smiled.

 

“Well, you were conscious when you caught Nazuna when she fell off of the cliff…”

 

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Kagome-sama is an interesting person, Kazeko thought, picking over the twenty-odd bottles of various antidotes. I'm not too sure if I want to know why she created most of these.

 

Kagome created and mixed her own medicines, Mitsuko had explained, having spent a few highly instructive afternoons hunting down various herbs with the miko. The antidote for snake-youkai poison was right next to a couple for different types of normal snake poison. Also in the medicine pack were antidotes for the venoms of lizards, wasps, scorpions and spiders, in both youkai and normal variety. One of the spider jars was a little old and unused-looking, but there was no indicator of what kind of spider it was for. She only knew that it was for spiders at all because, sketched onto the label tied around the jar, was a crude silhouette of a spider. The sketch gave Kazeko the creeps.

 

There were also antidotes to the venoms of cats, moths, bears and butterflies, although presumably for youkai breeds only. Another old-looking jar, although it looked more recently used than the spider one, was a jar where the label bore only a drawing of a blue crescent moon which looked uncannily like the one on SesshoMaru's forehead.

 

SesshoMaru....

 

Kazeko gripped Tenseiga's hilt. It will protect you in my stead.

 

That sword had saved her life. The odd thing was, she had heard Kazuki muttering when he thought she was out of earshot, that brothers or not, youkai blades simply never did anything in hands other than their owners, unless there was a barrier curse on them like the one on Tessaiga, and they never did anything for humans. But Kazeko was human, 100%. So why had SesshoMaru-sama's blade protected her?

 

“Well, there are exceptions,” Isamu said, continuing the earlier conversation without, like Kazuki, realising that Kazeko could hear him. “Tessaiga was created for the protection of obaa-san- a human. It's also protected Okaa-san. Tessaiga created a Kaze No Kizu because I wanted to protect her and the kids- maybe Tenseiga wanted to protect her?”

 

“I don't wanna sound rude, but why would Tenseiga want to protect her?” Mitsuko asked.

 

“Maybe it's not really the sword that wants to protect Kazeko-san,” Kazuki said almost inaudibly.

 

Kazeko carefully drew Tenseiga, scabbard and all, and hugged it to her chest. SesshoMaru had saved her from her father... the life-debt he owed her was surely repaid. So why would he continue to protect her...?

 

Unless...?

 

“EEEEYAAAGH!”

 

“Kazuki, you baby! It's only a little medicine!”

 

“But it stings!”

 

“Kami, are you seventeen years old, or seventeen months?”

 

Kazeko turned around, then doubled over giggling. Yuki was holding Kazuki in an arm-lock while Mitsuko rubbed poison salve into the gash on his arm. Haruka and Isamu were leaning on each other to stop themselves falling over laughing, and the only children not rolling on the ground hooting were Takumi, Akira and Tsukiko, Tsukiko because she was probably too young to understand and Akira and Takumi because the two highly serious boys were merely sniggering. Kazuki was screaming in pain, although Kazeko strongly suspected that he was hamming it up.

 

“There, that should be enough,” Mitsuko said, giggling behind her hand as she passed the poison salve to Kazeko to pack away. Yuki let her brother out of the arm-lock and sat back on her haunches to glare at him as he cradled the arm, whimpering theatrically, to further gales of laughter from the younger children. Suddenly, he turned to Mitsuko.

 

“Wanna kiss it better?” he asked, his face split into a wide, cheesy grin- a now very familiar one, one that clearly said that he knew that he would be slapped for it, but he was saying it anyway. True to form, Mitsuko turned bright red. Kazeko winced as Kazuki hit the dirt, Yuki and Haruka cheering Mitsuko on.

 

“You'll probably need this,” she said with a chuckle, pulling out the pot of bruise medicine. The little altercation had washed away her deeper thoughts, but they were to resurface downstream and return to her- with a vengeance.

 

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“Hayashi-sama, I see nothing...” Sato called down to the captain, before climbing down the rocks. His foot dislodged something small and thin, which fell to the ground by Hayashi's feet. He knelt down and picked it up, twirling it thoughtfully in his fingers.

 

“Naval fools, they should have been here by now...” he muttered, glaring at the glittering sea as if it had offended him. He sniffed the small twig and then stilled, staring at it.

 

“Perhaps they were delayed...” Sato suggested, but Hayashi cut him off.

 

“This fruit does not grow here,” he said thoughtfully. He twirled the stalk again. “Indeed, I have not seen any plant life in this crevasse.”

 

“Hayashi-sama, it is often said that in places touched by powers of great evil, neither a tree nor a bush nor a blade of grass will grows for decades afterwards,” the monk said. He was the one who had uncovered the false miko, and so he had accompanied Hayashi on the trip through the crevasse where they had been attacked. “In any case, I sense no youki in this vicinity now. If they were here this morning, they are long gone.”

 

“They were here,” Hayashi said, dropping the stalk. “They must have gone north, all of them do. Those ships had better get here soon, or else they will outstrip us.”

 

“Hayashi-sama,” Sato said nervously, “Forgive me, but we will have to send most of the men home. We have too few able fighters to continue to chase the youkai. We should go home for the winter; it is augured to be a long and fierce one.”

 

“The youkai will be dead by the first flake of snow,” Hayashi said, striding back to his nervous horse. “I have a plan...”

 

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“So, where were we last night?” Yuki asked, sitting back from the fire, pinging Michio's ear in an attempt to get him to lie down and sleep.

 

“Did we get to Okaa-san smashing the Shikon No Tama?” Isamu asked thoughtfully, looking up at the stars.

 

“Yeah, I think that was it,” Kazeko said, suddenly grinning. “I have to say, the story of the rosary was the funniest thing I've ever heard…”

 

“I wanna hear a different story,” Yoshinori said, sitting up. Aside from Tsukiko and Akira, the children were refusing to sleep. Being carried all day wasn't exactly exhausting, near-death experience or no.

 

“Yeah,” Kiki said. “We wanna hear the story of why we're running away.”

 

“Why'd we leave Okaa-san and the others behind?” Hitomi asked, sounding scared. “Why are we leaving home?”

 

“We're not going back, are we?” Michio asked sternly. Yuki stared at him. She was about to reprimand him when she stopped. Kami above, he was twelve, wasn't he? In fact, the youngest one awake was Takumi, and he was a mature kid.

 

“Look, maybe you guys're too young to know…” Haruka began, but Yuki shook her head. To her surprise, Kazuki backed her up.

 

“I think they're old enough to deserve too,” he said seriously. Isamu nodded in agreement. Yoshinori, Michio, Takumi, Hitomi and Kiki all leaned forwards. Akira turned over in his sleep. Finally, it was Mitsuko who spoke.

 

“My family were murdered,” she said softly. “My parents, my aunt, all dead. And we're not the only ones. There are humans who seek to destroy all youkai. They slaughtered many, in the south. And they are moving north. They have almost certainly reached your home by now.” Hitomi gasped in fear, gripping Kiki's hands. Yoshinori and Michio were wide-eyed, and Takumi merely looked sad.

 

“Isamu, Kiki-chan and their parents are in grave danger, as is Mitsuko-san,” Kazuki said.

 

“We weren't about to let them run on their own,” Haruka added, squeezing Isamu's hand. He wrapped it around hers. “We decided to help them, as did Okaa-san, Otou-san and the others.”

 

“They stayed to fight off the armies,” Yuki said. “Unfortunately, our choices dragged you into this too. You guys have to run with us. We're going to the smaller islands to the north, looking for some empty ones to set up home, at least for now.”

 

“Good,” Takumi said quietly. Everyone stared in some shock at the little boy. “I don't want to leave Kiki-san and Isamu-san and everyone behind. Chichi-ue and everyone are really strong. We'll get to see them again on Hokkaido, won't we?”

 

“Of course,” Kazeko said. Yoshinori abruptly turned to her.

 

“What about your parents, Kazeko-san?” he asked. “You're human, right? So what happened to your parents?” Kazeko's back stiffened, and then she sighed forlornly.

 

“I'm dead to them,” she said sadly. “Otou-san is the one leading the campaign. I'm no better than a youkai to him.” To her shock, Kiki reached out and hugged her.

 

“Then you stay with us,” she said. “We'll be your new family. Can I call you onee-chan? I don't have any sisters,” she added, sticking her tongue out at Isamu. Kazeko could feel her eyes stinging.

 

“Of course,” she said, hugging Kiki back. Michio turned to glare at his elder siblings.

 

“We're not babies anymore, OK?” he said sternly. “Next time that we're all gonna die, at least tell us.”

 

Kazuki burst out laughing. “I'll keep that in mind,” he said, between chuckles.

 

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Back to writing! But I may not be updating as much as I'd like to now. Why? Blame Will Wright. I'm hooked, dammit, because the new computer's powerful enough to run all of the expansion packs...

 

Thanks to Saphira404 for the lovely birthday wishes!

 

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. ^_-