InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 21 ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter Twenty-One

“It's a favourable wind,” Hayashi said approvingly, watching the first of the ships start moving north, “for us, anyway.” They had been forced to sacrifice some fit men to row the invalids' ship southward, because the wind was against them, but it was worth it for the speed that the wind would give the northbound ships. General Yamazaki was being carried on to the best ship. The monks were with him; they would be sensing out for the auras of any youkai.

“Should you sense any large numbers of them,” he ordered, “inform me immediately; we will keep going until we are a day ahead of them, then prepare an ambush. I have already drilled the men on what to do in such an eventuality.” The lead monk bowed and rushed off to inform his companions. Hayashi walked on to the ship and headed towards the general's quarters.

“This is all very well done, Hayashi,” Yamazaki said approvingly as Hayashi entered the cabin. Hayashi bowed in response. “I am especially impressed about how you got a message to the south, the ships loaded and the men here in under a week.” Hayashi's eyes widened. He had hoped that Yamazaki would not notice the odd time-frame, but it was probably too much to hope that anything would get past the general. He wondered what to say, and settled for the truth.

“To be honest, Yamazaki-sama,” he said, with another bow, “I ordered that the men begin loading up the ships before I rode out to join you. They were supposed to be only a few days behind us, and would quickly catch us if we stopped, ready to take the injured home and provide us with the bulk of the force.” He stopped and watched the general's unreadable face. He could feel himself sweating. What he had done was incredibly audacious, he knew; he could be executed for it. Everything depended on whet the general thought.

Long moments passed. Then Yamazaki laughed loudly and clapped. “Brilliant! I could tell you had brains, boy, but clearly you have guts too! I'm glad I promoted you. Calm down, Hayashi, you're not going to be executed. You'd only be punished if it didn't work!”

Hayashi smiled in relief. “We'll be moving out presently,” he said, bowing out. He closed the door to the general's laughter.

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“I hope the kids are all right,” Kagome said worriedly, watching the sun clear the horizon. As soon as InuYasha had returned to normal, they had started running. The problem was moving north. They were headed towards winter. While the wind and snow would slow them down, she wasn't sure what effect it would have on the army. She remembered uneasily that the army would have access to ships, and the northerly winds would be a massive asset to them. On top of that, she wasn't sure if or when they'd catch up to their children- she knew for a fact that Isamu could run just as fast as InuYasha, and that Kazuki and the twins had always trained with him, so they would be nearly as fast, despite being human. Mitsuko, being youkai, would hardly slow them down. Which meant that until they reached Hokkaido, she was unlikely to know what had happened to her children.

SesshoMaru suddenly appeared beside her and InuYasha, drifting along effortlessly at InuYasha's top speed. Because he was so much faster than the rest of them, he had periodically been doubling back to check up on the progress of the armies.

“Grave news,” he said stoically, as ever. “Firstly, Yamazaki is alive, although I will admit that I cannot imagine how.”

“He survived that slash you gave him?” Miroku said, pouring on a little more power and catching up to them. “That's impossible.”

“Why should he die? After all, that would benefit people,” InuYasha snarled.

“You said `firstly',” Rin said. “What else is wrong?”

“The main army has caught up, in ships,” SesshoMaru said. “They are not moving quite as fast as us, but they will not stop at nights. Wind will only benefit them, and rain and snow will not slow them- only a typhoon will do that.”

“Dammit,” Kohaku muttered. “They plan to wait for us, ambush us.”

“All we can do is pray that the snows are late,” Kagome muttered, tightening her arms around InuYasha's neck.

“InuYasha-sama, there is more bad news,” Myoga said.

“Where the hell did you come from?” InuYasha asked incredulously.

“I went with SesshoMaru-sama, but that is beside the point,” Myoga said. “I just thought I should let you know that your friend is dead.”

“Who?” Kagome asked, fear suddenly gripping her. Who did he mean? Was it one of the villagers? Nazuna, who had hidden them only days ago? Who?

“I told you that the fledgling army that you fought had experience,” Myoga said. “What I did not have time to tell you was that they slaughtered the last clan of the Yourouzoku. All are dead, including the chieftain.”

“Koga?” InuYasha said incredulously. Myoga nodded sadly, and Kagome gasped out a sob. “That baka's dead?”

InuYasha could smell the faint cent of salt as Kagome struggled not to cry. Koga? They hadn't heard from him in years. In fact, InuYasha couldn't remember seeing him since his and Kagome's wedding. That yasee ookami had shown up long enough to formally announce that he'd given Kagome up, to call InuYasha inukkoro one more time, and then vanish off of the face of the earth. He'd breezed past the village once or twice, but for the most part he'd been out of their lives ever since, and as far as InuYasha was concerned, they were better off for it. Even so... hearing that that damn general had murdered him, and his clan...

SesshoMaru was looking oddly pale. “Every last one has been wiped out?” he asked, emotionless as ever, yet there was a strange undertone to his question.

“Their numbers were not strong, not after all those whom Naraku killed,” Myoga said sadly, “and now they are all but extinct. Perhaps there are one or two that were not there, but...”

“That's horrible,” Sango said quietly. Kohaku nodded in agreement, a muscle in his jaw ticking. Kagome could easily imagine what the two taijiya were thinking about; their friends, their family, their entire clan wiped out by Naraku.

“Slaughter follows slaughter,” Rin said. “Naraku slaughtered thousands, and so people grew afraid of him; with his death, that fear was spread to include all youkai, and the only way to end their fear is to destroy the source.”

“But then angry and scared youkai will start slaughtering humans again,” Kohaku said. “It's a pointless and bloody cycle.”

“One that will only end, I fear,” Myoga said, “with the extinction of either humans or youkai.”

“Or at least,” SesshoMaru said, “one side believing that the other is extinct.”

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A week ago, Kazeko had been shocked at how fast the taijiya could move; they easily kept up with Isamu and Mitsuko. It must have taken ungodly amounts of training. But now, she didn't notice. She paid no attention to the ground zipping away beneath Kazuki's feet as he carried her. In some part of her mind, she felt an irrational bit of guilt for being carried by him- more than once, she knew, Mitsuko had woken up in the middle of the night, sobbing for her family, and Kazuki had managed to comfort her without groping. She'd even let him pat her back reassuringly as she and Kazeko had sobbed into each others' shoulders last night, overcome by grief over the horrendous slaughter of which they had been told.

But the rest of Kazeko's mind was not occupied by guilt; it was still consumed by horror, and grief, and a pain she felt as keenly as if she had been stabbed through the chest. She knew now, what it was that had weighed so heavily on SesshoMaru's mind, that time that she had seen him standing alone on the cliff-edge; understood why he had been so desperate to stop the peaceful youkai being massacred. It must have been déjà vu for him. More death and destruction, mercy for none; she wondered if he knew of the massacred Yourouzoku yet. She clutched Tenseiga tightly as a wave of pain ripped through her, a pain that was not fully her own; SesshoMaru's pain. Kazeko couldn't imagine how hard it must be for him to hide it- to have hidden it, for over two hundred years.

“She died a long time ago...”

And the pain hadn't ended there, had it? Kazeko felt another wave of pain as she thought of this unknown woman whom he had loved and lost. How could he have been able to withstand it? He'd lost his family, friends, and now someone else whom he loved. Kazeko couldn't help feeling the pain; pain that SesshoMaru was in pain. It hurt her that he could feel so badly hurt. She felt irrationally angry towards the long-dead woman; how dare she die on SesshoMaru, and hurt him like that? How could she have left him? It was no good that a logical part of her mind was telling her that few choose to die, and this woman couldn't possibly have; Kazeko was still angry, and a little jealous.

She took a few deep breaths to clear her thoughts, glancing at Kazuki to see if he had noticed her hateful thoughts. If he had, he was giving no sign, and Kazeko could only feel relieved about that. Her feelings for SesshoMaru were growing stronger than friendship, she knew, and she needed to figure them out alone; she didn't want questions. She needed time to figure things out on her own.

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Mitsuko couldn't help the occasional glance at Kazeko. Her friend was keeping a tight hold on Tenseiga, and was clearly lost in thought. Mitsuko could sense it, hovering at the top of her friend's thoughts; SesshoMaru. Mitsuko remembered Kazuki and the others' tales. If Kazeko truly was Kagura's reincarnation, then she was fated to meet SesshoMaru. Their destinies had already been deeply interlinked before Kazeko was even born. What their destiny was, however...

Mitsuko closed her eyes, her nose leading her after Isamu and the others. She had learned that she couldn't control her bouts of clairvoyance, but, if she tried hard enough, she could get a vague image of the future. Kazeko's directions had probably saved hers and Akira's lives, Mitsuko knew, and so she tried to see her friend's destiny.

It was faint, but she could see SesshoMaru and Kazeko's faces together. They looked content, but merely their faces together gave Mitsuko no useful information. She could not tell how far away it was, and, more to the point, there was a thick mist around them, obscuring their surroundings. SesshoMaru are Kazeko would be together, Mitsuko could tell that much...

But would it be in this world or the next?

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Isamu felt vaguely lucky that his father's strict drilling meant that he could find his way north without ever being seen purely on instinct, because his mind was still dwelling endlessly on Yuudai's tale, and the stories of the Inu-Youkai.

There had been a clan. A big one, and a good one too, it sounded like. One that had accepted Isamu's grandmother Izayoi as their leader's mate. One that also would have accepted hanyou.

Isamu knew that his father had had a very hard time as a child, after his mother died, outcast and alone. If it weren't for Ryukossei, his father would have grown up at InuYama, accepted and happy. And maybe, Isamu and Kiki would have too.

Isamu wondered often what it would have been like, living in InuYama. He knew it was no good, thinking about “what ifs” and “could have beens”, but he also knew that he'd end up thinking about it anyway, so he might as well get it out of his system.

Would he have had friends his age? Maybe his father would have had siblings. Then Isamu might have had cousins. But then he wouldn't know Kazuki, Haruka and Yuki at all. In fact, it struck him that he might not have existed at all, or would have been someone totally different. If his father hadn't been alone, he wouldn't have ended up looking for the Shikon No Tama. He wouldn't have met Kikyo or, therefore, by extension, Isamu's mother. Naraku might not have existed. Following that, Kazuki, Yuki and Haruka's parents may not have met, or Rin and Kohaku. He looked over his friends. With the exception of Mitsuko, Akira and Kazeko, none of them might exist right now. But several hundred Inu-youkai would.

Isamu sighed. It really was no use wondering about how things might have been different. They might have been better or worse, but they definitely would have been different. But, glancing over at Haruka, Isamu knew that, high possibility of imminent death or not, he was happy where he was. He also felt that, maybe, in another world, there was an Isamu who had been born in InuYama, and grown up there. He knew that that Isamu was probably happy too.

He couldn't change things if he wanted to, s there was no point in thinking about what would happen if he could. Still, Isamu knew that he wouldn't be able to forget about InuYama, and the genocide of his own kind which had occurred there.

Especially when there were more important things that he needed to focus on.

“Mitsuko, can you smell that too?” Isamu said, landing in a halt in a small clearing. Mitsuko, who had stopped almost the instant he had- he idly wondered if her prescience extended to knowing what he was going to do- nodded.

“Youkai, and badly hurt,” she said. She wrinkled her nose. “Too much blood to tell what sort, though...”

Isamu put Kiki and Hitomi down. Michio was already clambering off of his back. “I can't tell if it's hostile or not,” he said, “but we've gotta help it out.”

Yoshinori ran over to Yuki. “Onee-san, can I have my staff?” he asked. Yuki nodded and handed it to him. “Kiki-chan and I could make a shield to look after everyone if you all want to go look...”

“I'll go with Isamu,” Kazuki said. “Ane-ue, Mitsuko, Ane-ue...”

“We'll stay here,” Haruka said. “Kiki-chan, you don't have to help with the shield...”

Kiki and Yoshinori had each placed one hand on the staff and had the other raised perpendicular to their faces, two fingers curled, two extended. The runes were beginning to glow blue, and Kiki was wincing slightly in pain. Her own holy powers were burning her.

“I'm all right,” she said. “I just need to help long enough to set up the shield, Yoshi-kun can hold it alone after that...”

“I'm sorry, Kiki-chan,” Yoshinori said. “I'll get better at shields so I can set them up on my own.”

A blue orb expanded from the staff and washed over them, forming a large dome over them all. Kiki stepped back and licked at the burns on her hand. Haruka started digging in the medicine kit.

“I'll get you some burn stuff.” She glanced over at her brother and fiancée. “Weren't you two going somewhere?”

Isamu nodded and set off. He knew that Kazuki wasn't far behind him. It was a little odd, he thought- Miroku had five children who couldn't' seem to summon or use any holy powers of their own accord, without the aid of ofuda, but Yoshinori, who shared no blood at all with his uncle, had proven himself to have quite a degree of holy powers. The full extent of them was as yet unknown, but he was training. If his holy powers could work with his taijiya training, then Yoshinori could be powerful indeed.

Isamu caught, faintly, underneath the powerful scent of youkai blood, the scents of a human and some hanyou. If there were hanyou, then, the youkai probably wasn't evil.

He couldn't help smiling. He didn't care if things would have been better or worse, had there been no massacre at InuYama. Things were the way they were, and there was no helping that. Thinking of his fiancée and sister, Isamu decided that, all murderers and genocides taken into account, things could very easily have been much, much worse.

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I'm sorry this took forever to write! Gomen, Gomen! I just had no idea how to follow up chapter 20, or to link it to the next event that I wanted to happen. However, I managed it, and the next chapter's going to make things a good bit cheerier, I promise! Gomen!

And I know I keep saying this, but thanks for your comments, Milenalupin. It's wonderful to know that my fic has such a powerful emotional effect. And in answer to your question, I tend to only take a very little of anime-specific arcs and plot points into account (I just mentioned the episode with Ungai because I loved that one- SesshoMaru PWNS!), so Ayame probably won't ever turn up in a fic of mine. But if I was saying that her clan existed, they would have been destroyed, too- remember, Yuudai said that, after Naraku's death, the surviving Yourouzoku clans banded together into one large clan for safety, with Koga at its head. So they would have died too.

For anyone who doesn't know, Yasee Ookami basically translates as “starving wolf” and is what InuYasha calls Koga. Likewise, Inukkoro literally means “dog shit” and is what Koga calls InuYasha. In the Viz version they changed this to “Puppy”, but that's what Koga is actually saying there. Viz got rid of all of the foul language in the English version of InuYasha, but I gather that they're all foulmouthed little gits in the Japanese version. ;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. ^_-