InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 19 ( Chapter 19 )

Chapter Nineteen

 

“Here you go,” Yuki said, tying the packs around Kazuki's back as he picked up Tsukiko. He was wearing his civvies again. Kazeko was now just strong enough to walk, but they'd have to move quickly to get past the village unnoticed.

 

“Just over the hill,” Isamu said. “We're gonna follow the river, I don't smell fresh water anywhere near the village.”

 

“Isn't it a bit early to be hunting shelter?” Kazeko asked, slinging her good arm around Yuki's shoulders. “The sun's not that low yet...”

 

“We need to find a cave, we can't stop in the forest tonight,” Isamu said tensely. Kazeko stared at him in confusion, but she decided against saying anything as Kazuki walked up the path towards the village, rubbing a little dirt into his cheeks as he did so.

 

“We can't go into the villages in case people tell the armies about us, right?” Michio asked. Isamu nodded as they moved through the trees, nose open for human scents.

 

“It's been a week,” Hitomi said sadly. “I hope Otou-san and Okaa-san are all right.”

 

“I bet everyone's fine,” Yoshinori said confidently. “If Naraku couldn't kill `em, how much luck will humans have?”

 

“Time to shut up,” Yuki said, watching the villagers turn to the poor, starving widower (with baby). “Okay, go!”

 

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“It's healed already? After only a week?” Sango gaped at Kagome's shoulder, where there was now only a bruised indent where there had been a hole a week before.

 

“The healing's slower than a hanyou, but much faster than a human,” Kagome explained, sinking back into the hot water. “Ahh, it's nice to find one of these up here...”

 

“I know, I'm almost getting déjà vu,” Sango commented, glancing over at the trees. “I wonder if I'm still allowed to flatten Miroku if he peeks?”

 

“Does he need to anymore?” Rin giggled. Sango gasped and splashed her sister-in-law. “Although really, we should have gotten them to come in with us...”

 

“Ecchi!” Kagome squealed and joined in the splashing. Laughing, Rin splashed back.

 

“Really, though...” Kagome sighed, settling down, “I'm both glad and worried that we've found no sign of the children yet. After all, if we've found no sign, then the soldiers'll never track them... but, equally...”

 

“I refuse to believe that they've been wiped out without a trace,” Sango said. “Yuki and Haruka are better than I was at their age, although admittedly at their age I was pregnant with Kazuki...”

 

“Kinda hinders the fighting skills, huh?” Kagome said, rubbing her belly. At nearly four months along, it wasn't quite protruding yet, but was unusually firm. She glanced up at the darkening sky. Rin and Sango followed her glance.

 

“Looks like we'll have to get out soon,” Rin sighed, squeezing out her hair. “We've been here too long...”

 

“If we'd been here three seconds, InuYasha would complain about us being in too long,” Kagome grumbled. Sango chuckled.

 

“Yes, but he only ever said that out of irritation that we flattened him whenever he followed Miroku,” she said lightly.

 

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“No, you don't.”

 

“Sango and I have been married for twenty years now...”

 

“And she will still whack you if you go up there. If she don't, Kagome and Rin will.”

 

“I'm sure they won't mind if you and Kohaku come too...”

 

“I've gotten in more than enough trouble for following you over the years. No.”

 

“They're coming back anyway,” Kohaku said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder as he turned back to them. Sure enough, the women, still a little damp, were picking their way through the trees, back to the camp. InuYasha let Miroku go and he sat down with a dejected sigh. InuYasha just snorted and sat down against one of the walls of the little shrine. Kagome, Sango and Rin entered, all bowing their heads to the little statue of some forest spirit on the way. Sango wandered over to check on Kirara. The little cat sat up and mewled happily. Her wounds had been worse than Kagome's, but she healed much faster, and so now there was no sign of the bullet wounds other than small bald patches of fur. Even there, hairs were almost visibly growing.

 

“We need to speed up,” Kohaku said. “Is she gonna be all right to run tomorrow?”

 

“Probably,” Sango said, rubbing Kirara's ears. Kirara mewled again, jumping as if to indicate that she wanted to run. “But I would prefer it if it were only a couple of people...”

 

“I can run,” Miroku said.

 

“I will carry Rin if needs be,” SesshoMaru commented. “We must move faster. The northerly winter winds are growing stronger- if they should choose to use ships, then they will catch up with us quickly.”

 

“Kohaku and I, then,” Sango said. “Would they dare use ships with winter growing so close, though?”

 

“I'd rather not risk everything on betting that they won't,” Kagome said, sitting down next to InuYasha, who was very tense. SesshoMaru snorted and stepped outside, leaping to the shrine roof. Kohaku slid the door mostly closed. It was only open a sliver, just enough for them to see the sun slip below the horizon.

 

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“Hayashi-sama, the ships are here,” Sato said. He pointed to the sea, and then frowned.

 

“Is there a problem, Sato?” Hayashi asked, walking past the dying men that he had been talking to, heading for Yamazaki's tent. The general had not died, but in fact had been growing stronger; he'd managed to sit up only yesterday. He'd be insisting on standing soon.

 

“There are too many, Hayashi-sama,” Sato protested. “There's an empty one that the injured are loading on to, but what are the other three for?”

 

“Load the fit men onto them,” Hayashi said. “There should be room. Make sure that all of the injured are loaded onto the empty boat. It is returning south. The others are moving north.” Sato's eyes widened in realization and he bowed before hurrying off. Hayashi continued on.

 

“Ohayou Gozaimasu, Yamazaki-sama,” he said as he walked into the general's tent and bowed. The man himself nodded to Hayashi, signalling for him to speak.

 

“Will you be returning south with the others injured?” Hayashi inquired. “The ships have arrived.”

 

“Very good,” Yamazaki said. “But no, I shall not return south. I began this campaign, and I swear that I will end it before the first snows fall. The snow will have to cover ground red with youkai blood.”

 

“You are very brave, Yamazaki-sama,” Hayashi said, “But should you not recuperate longer?”

 

“I'm only interested in how long I have to live in relation to how long it takes to kill those youkai,” Yamazaki grunted. “I have nothing else now, not now that my wife is dead and I have no children.” Hayashi said nothing, knowing that Yamazaki's daughter was dead to them, being among the youkai as she was. She would be slaughtered, along with the creatures that she protected.

 

“Very noble, Yamazaki-sama,” Hayashi said, bowing out of the tent. “We will move once the entire force is loaded.”

 

“Well done, Hayashi,” Yamazaki said as the captain left.

 

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“Okay, so where were we last night?” Kazuki said, dropping a few more logs onto the fire. It was rather larger than necessary, but Kiki hadn't stopped shivering since sunset, and although he remained composed, Kazuki could tell that Isamu was nervous. Besides, with no moon to provide light, they'd need the fire.

 

“This is… kinda weird…” Kazeko commented, putting down the brush she'd been using to tidy Kiki's hair one-handed and examining the top of the girl's head. “This happens every month?”

 

“Every new moon,” Mitsuko confirmed. She and Akira had stayed with Isamu's family long enough to know about the human nights, so they were significantly less weirded out than Kazeko. Kazuki, Haruka and Yuki had seen Isamu change every month since they were children, and so were completely unfazed. They younger children were already falling asleep, and Kazeko coaxed Kiki under a blanket in the hope that she would sleep too.

 

“Sunset till dawn,” Yuki said, then added in a muttered undertone, “Wish I had a schedule that good.”

 

“Don't we all,” Kazeko agreed. Haruka flushed a little and giggled and the men and youkai looked completely and utterly perplexed, making the girls burst out laughing.

 

“I'm not going to ask,” Kazuki declared. Isamu just shifted stiffly, a little closer to the fire.

 

“You're not normally this tense,” Haruka said gently, sitting down next to him and rubbing his shoulders in an effort to soothe him.

 

“Yeah, well, I'm normally at home, not running for my life,” he muttered tersely. Physically, Isamu appeared to have undergone little change beyond the color of his eyes darkening, unlike Kiki who kept pulling at her human ears.

 

“When you were a baby, you cried all night, every month,” Yuki said. Isamu growled at her, although it had a markedly smoother tone than his normal doglike noises.

 

“I was scared, all right?” he muttered, turning a little red. “I could barely hear, barely see, couldn't smell at all compared to normal… honestly, I can't understand how you guys spend your entire lives like this…”

 

“Speaking of smelling,” Mitsuko said suddenly, “I smell wolf.” Kazuki, Yuki and Haruka whipped their heads around as they picked up the youki that had suddenly appeared not far off. Kazuki's hand instantly went to his weapon, and Haruka's clutched Isamu's.

 

“Show yourself, wolf,” Yuki called. A man stepped into the circle of the firelight, hands held up in surrender.

 

He was thin-looking, his hair liberally streaked with grey, despite his face which, although it didn't look old, looked as though it had aged very fast in a very short time. He had no weapons.

 

“Put down the weapons, I won't hurt ye,” he said stoically. It sounded as though he had almost no emotion in him at all, reminding Isamu a little of his uncle- but while SesshoMaru remained enigmatic, the wolf sounded completely dejected, as though he had nothing left to give. “I can't eat anymore, anyway. I just wanted a little warmth and rest, when I saw the fire.”

 

“Are you fleeing north too?” Yuki asked suspiciously. The wolf looked them all over.

 

“'Too'?” he asked. “Even humans have to flee the armies now? I can understand the tigers' reasons, but why are all of ye running?”

 

“We deemed it prudent,” Kazuki said pompously, Yuki whacking him over the head for it. The wolf took the bickering as a sign to sit down, and he did, sinking down against a tree between Yuki and Kazuki, and Isamu and Haruka- within reach of people who could kill him at any time. They all settled at this final show of benign intentions.

 

“What happened to your pack?” Mitsuko asked. “I've never heard of a wolf travelling alone.”

 

“That general's insane,” the wolf grunted. “Yuudai, lone wolf. Only wolf now, as far as I know. I'm not alone by choice. My pack's dead, every last damned one of them. We'd barely recovered from the loss of three whole clans, twenty years ago, we'd all come together to make one final, large clan, but then… Men, women, children, wolves, even the clan leader- Koga, one of the only ones to survive the massacres twenty years ago, a damn strong wolf- all shot, all burned, all dead. I only survived because my shot knocked me out, but didn't kill me. I woke up to blood and bodies and dwindling fires. It was like InuYama, only worse, because this time it was my own kin that were dead.” Haruka gasped in shock, squeezing Isamu's hand as she tried not to cry.

 

“They're… wiped out?” Yuki said tightly, though it was really more of a statement than a question, one that got all of the answers it needed from the wolf's face. Kazeko's hands were balling into tight fists, and Mitsuko looked sick. Kazuki carefully looked over the young children- all, including Kiki, were deeply asleep.

 

Isamu's brain had slowed, almost unable to comprehend the horror of such genocide, but one of the wolf's words had stuck in his brain.

 

“`InuYama,'” he said slowly. “What is that? Was that?”

 

If it had been possible for the old wolf to look any sadder, he did now. Yuki, Haruka and Kazuki had all turned their heads when Kazuki had spoken, Mitsuko being comforted by a still furious Kazeko. “I'm not sure that it's my story to tell, really.” Yuudai said. He seemed to be slowly chewing over the question. They all watched him intently.

 

“It was centuries before your time,” he said eventually. “InuYama- the home of the great clan of the Inu-Youkai.”

 

 

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“Ecchi” is basically the female form of “Hentai. “Yaoi” is the homosexual version.

“Yuudai” means “Great Hero”.

“InuYama” means “Dog Mountain”.

“Inu-Youkai” means “Dog Demons”.

 

Thanks to Kourinthehunter for her lovely comments- oh, and I Romanize SesshoMaru's name with a capital “M” out of habit. There's no formal way to Romanize most Japanese words- you could spell his name SesshoMaru, Sesshomaru or sesshoumaru and be correct. “Sexxhoumaru” isn't strictly correct, but I still love it :P .

 

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. ^_-