InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 23 ( Chapter 23 )

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kazeko ran, her breath coming in harsh gasps. She was surrounded with a thick mist; she wasn't certain what she was running from, but she knew that she had to get away.

She skidded to a halt at the edge of the cliff. This was the cliff near her home, wasn't it? But it seemed so much higher. It vanished into the mists below. Kazeko nudged a pebble off of the edge with her toe. It fell out of sight and she didn't hear it hit the ground. Maybe the sound was muffled by the mist. She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears and put her hand to her chest to see if her heartbeat was as fast.

She felt nothing.

“There you are, you bitch!”

Kazeko turned with a gasp. Her father was standing there, sword outstretched, an angry red glow in his eyes.

“You traitorous little slut,” he growled. “Die!”

He thrust his sword out. Kazeko felt a piercing pain as it ripped straight through her. But there was another odd pain, like a fire. Her father pulled the sword out of her with a sickening schlurp. She stared down at the wound. A thick, dark smoke was curling from the edges, burning a huge hole in her chest. She gasped as blood filled her mouth and she fell backwards from the cliff.

The wind whistled through her hair as she fell forever. She felt an odd sense of peace as she felt its cool caress, blowing away the smoke that poured from her wound like blood. She closed her eyes, content to feel the breeze, when she hit water.

The current was strong. She couldn't have fought it if she tried. She didn't try. It calmed the burn of the wound. The hole was growing ever larger, but it was no longer burning- the water was soothing it. Kazeko waited to drown or dissolve.

Neither happened. Kazeko felt something wrap around her, warm but firm. It was an arm. Someone was pulling her from the water. She hissed as her wound began to burn again in the open air, but the arm held her against something warm and soft. She tried to open her eyes, to see her rescuer, but there was a bright glow that blinded her. She screwed up her eyes. Was it sunny? Hadn't it been foggy before? As her eyes adjusted, Kazeko realized that yes, it was sunny, but it was also her saviour. He was glowing brightly. All she could see of him was a white glow, but she could also feel something emanating from him, warm and comforting and invisible, wrapping around her. He was holding her close to him with one hand, and the other was holding another glowing object, an organic-looking lump that was pulsing faintly.

“I think this is yours,” he said softly, pressing the lump to her chest. The hole was gone, and so was the lump, but now Kazeko could feel a heavy thumping in her chest.

“Not really,” she whispered. “Of course you had it. I gave it to you the first day I met you.” Kazeko could see SesshoMaru more clearly now, but she didn't need to. She had known all along whom it was. Stronger now, she leaned up and pressed her lips to his.

“Kazeko?”

Kazeko moaned as she blinked awake. Mitsuko was sitting over her with a worried expression.

“Are you all right?” The tigress said worriedly. “You were whimpering and moaning so much, it looked like you were having a nightmare...”

“I was,” Kazeko grumbled, sitting up, “but you woke me up just after it turned into a dream.”

“Oh, Gomen,” Mitsuko said. “Well, you're up now- how's the ankle?”

“Hmm?” Kazeko stood up. “Hey, it's stopped hurting!” she flexed the ankle a little and walked, not limped, over to the fire pit. They were in an old woodcutter's hut- little buildings with plenty of wood, a little food and generally an indoor water pump in case some hunter or woodcutter became stranded on the mountain. The places were a Kami-send.

“We're staying here today,” Mitsuko said, “so maybe you should walk around on it a little. It'll help the healing.”

“We're staying? Oh, yeah...” Kazeko glanced over at their newest invalid. The Kitsune was sleeping deeply, although little could be seen of him but bandages. The strange thing was that little images were dancing above his head. Kazeko saw a spinning top, and some odd multi-coloured sticks, and a shining pink orb.

“Weird, isn't it,” Mitsuko said. “It started a little after he went to sleep. Must be Kitsune Yojutsu or something. They're kind of weird youkai.”

“You're telling me,” Kazeko said. She mentally shook herself. The dream was still staying in her head- the pain and fear, the falling, the feeling of dissolving. But the thing that wasn't going away was the memory of SesshoMaru's kiss. She was glad that no-one could see her dreams.

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Haruka fiddled with the ties on her shinpads in frustration. She grinned in triumph when they slipped loose, and pulled off the solid pads to slip on the straw sandals. Yuki was fiddling with the mandarin buttons on her collar, loosening it so that it could be hidden under her yukata.

“Feels like I haven't worn civvies in ages,” she commented. “All right, let's double-check our story, you know the older women will be pumping us for information while they scrounge up spare supplies...”

“Okay,” Haruka said. “We're going with Tsukiko being your baby, right?”

“Hell no, she's being our sister, remember?” Yuki said. “If she was one of ours, then we'd be able to feed her, wouldn't we?”

“Forgot about that,” Haruka admitted. “Okay, younger brother and sister, all others dead of starvation, father killed in war, mother in childbirth, going north to meet older brother in a castle-town, figure we can get work there, want to find Takumi an artists' apprenticeship...”

“Are we going with real names if they ask?” Yuki asked with a frown.

“Do you really think they're going to make any sort of connection between a few orphaned kids and masses of murderous youkai?” Haruka said. “Besides, it'd be more suspicious if we made up false names and then accidentally called each other by our real ones.”

“And we're not just doing the poor young widower with baby routine, why...?” Kazuki asked. Isamu smacked him on the back of the head.

“Baka. We're still near Shippo and Satsuki's village, you know,” he said. “We don't know that none of the ones who attacked Shippo were from nearby villages, and they saw your face. Not that's it's not completely untrustworthy to begin with.”

“And he manages to slip in an insult in the last second,” Kazuki grumbled. “Whatever. Get lots of stuff, okay? Once it starts snowing, nobody'll have anything to spare. There's some pretty heavy rain in the south, you can see the clouds from here if you get into a treetop.”

“All the more reason to get moving ASAP,” Yuki said, picking up Takumi. “Later.”

Isamu watched them go, but Kazuki was watching the south again.

“I wonder if it'll slow them down,” he said quietly.

“Parents or army?” Isamu asked flatly.

“Both.”

“Yes and hopefully,” Isamu said. “And both of that's bad.”

“Because `hopefully' generally means `no' when it comes to these guys,” Kazuki said, turning and walking back to the little hut. For once, Isamu couldn't find a reason to contradict him.

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“There's lightning now,” Rin said thoughtfully, peering out of the window of the little forest hut that they were hiding in. InuYasha was growling in frustration again. The rainy season was coming on strong this year, and they had to run in the dry times, no matter what time of day that they were; InuYasha was on the verge of suggesting running during the rain when Rin mentioned the lightning. There was no way that they could go out in that.

Kagome was leaning against the wall, sitting upright, gently rubbing her stomach and humming something under her breath. It had a soft, pleasant tune, but it was still a little sad. Sango had her eyes closed and was nodding gently along with it.

“I've heard you humming this song before, Kagome-chan,” the taijiya said thoughtfully. “Is it a song from your time?”

“Yes, it's a western one,” Kagome said, “but I quite liked it. I can't remember the verses very well, but the chorus stands out clearly.”

“Can you sing it?” Miroku asked with interest. “I've never heard a “western” song before.” Kagome closed her eyes and tipped her head back, as if sorting through her memories. Then she began to sing quietly.

“If it takes my whole life,

I won't break, I won't bend

It'll all be worth it

Worth it in the end

`Cause I can only tell you what I know

That I need you in my life

And when the stars have all burned out

You'll still be burning so bright...”

 

Kagome opened her eyes and shrugged with a slight smile. “That's all I can remember,” she admitted. “I know the tune, I just don't know any more of the words.”

 

“Still, it's a lovely song,” Rin said. “It's kind of romantic, but... it's so sad.”

“I always hummed it when I was pregnant with Kiki and Isamu,” Kagome said. “They seemed to like it.”

“Can the new baby hear it, though?” Kohaku asked dubiously. “You're not even five months yet...”

“Youkai and hanyou babies develop much faster than human ones,” SesshoMaru said. It was rare that he spoke at all, so everyone listened. “They spend as long as human babies do in the womb simply because they develop more than humans do- extra strength and senses take longer to grow. By now, the baby will be able to hear sounds. It will know its mother's voice, scent and heartbeat before it is born.”

“Wow,” Rin said. “I had no idea. So it can hear you singing?”

“It'll probably even remember the song,” Kagome said with a gentle smile. Then an odd glint surfaced in her eyes as she looked out at the storm. “And I intend to see that it lives long enough to sing for itself.”

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“You're pretty well healed, aside from your arm,” Mitsuko said, rewrapping Kazeko's sling. “But you're only human. It'll take a couple of months.”

“Great,” Kazeko said. “Isn't it nice how the end of my need for medicine coincides with a new invalid?”

“Aww, be nice,” Shippo complained and stuck his tongue out at her. Satoshi giggled and imitated his father. Satsuki simply gave a long-suffering sigh.

“Anyway, where were we?” Haruka asked, folding up her yukata and stuffing it into her pack. “Since we're not going anywhere, maybe we should get back to the stories.”

“Oooh, that's right,” Mitsuko said. “Weren't you telling us about... the Yourouzoku?” She hesitated, realizing that that night had been the night before they had met Yuudai.

“Yeah,” Isamu said. “Did we tell you who it was that killed them?”

“No, you were giving an explanation of how Naraku created his `bunshin',” Mitsuko said. “Didn't one of them kill the Yourouzoku?”

“Oh... yeah,” Haruka said. She seemed suddenly uneasy, but she masked it well, as did her brother and sister. Isamu was looking away.

“I remember that,” Shippo said. “Turns out the Yourouzoku had been lured to Naraku's castle... they'd heard rumours that the castle lord had huge amount s of Shikon No Kakera. Well, strictly speaking, that was true. It was a trap. Naraku wanted to make InuYasha and Koga fight to the death so that he could get Koga's shards.”

“How does that work?” Kazeko asked with a frown.

“Simple, really,” Isamu said, “at least, given the powers that the second bunshin had. Her name was Kagura.”

Mitsuko's back stiffened. Kagura...

“Who is Kagura?” she asked angrily. Isamu looked over at her, and she was surprised at how sad he looked.

“Was,” Haruka said softly. “She died twenty years ago.”

“She was a highly skilled Kaze-youkai,” Yuki said.

“She was one of that bastard Naraku's “children”, but Kohaku-oji-san says that she wasn't evil like him.” Kazuki said. “We'll explain Naraku in a minute,” he added to a fresh look of confusion from Mitsuko.

“And...” Isamu added, looking around, as if he didn't think he had the right to say what he was saying. “Okaa-san thinks... she was in love with Oji-san. And they think that he... he cared about her too.”

She glanced over at Kazeko, but she'd had no reaction to the name. Of course she didn't. She had no idea, did she? No idea of who she might once have been. Instead, Kazeko simply looked as interested as she always did when it came to the tales of what Isamu and the others' parents had gone through in the struggle for the Shikon No Tama.

“Kagura could control the wind, you see,” Kazuki said. “And the dead, we were told.”

“She could,” Shippo agreed. “She was very skilled, too.”

“You met her?” Kazeko said. “Oh, yeah... You used to travel with Kagome-sama and the others, didn't you?”

“Yep,” Shippo said proudly. “I was just a kit at the time, but I remember it all clearly. Especially what Naraku did. His plans were always near-perfect; it was generally Kagome's powers that saved us.”

“Kagura killed all of the Yourouzoku, didn't she?” Yuki asked. “Then she made their corpses attack Okaa-san and Otou-san and everyone.”

“Yeah, and that was creepy as hell,” Shippo said with a shudder. “Then she dropped her control half a second before Koga showed up, so what he saw was a mass of dead comrades and InuYasha, Tessaiga drawn, drenched in wolf-blood. It was one hell of a fight. It ended when we thought that InuYasha had been killed and Kagura showed herself to finish off Koga. InuYasha recovered and she got a Kaze No Kizu in the face.”

“Hold on a mo,” Mitsuko said. “I happen to have seen one of those in action. How in the seven hells did she survive?”

“InuYasha had a broken arm,” Shippo said, shrugging. “It didn't have enough force. Anyway, she legged it on that feather of hers- she used to wear this feather in her hair that could grow big enough to fly on, see.” Mitsuko glanced over at Kazeko. The girl had a faraway look on her face. Mitsuko frowned. What was her friend thinking of?

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A feather...

“So what happened to her after that?” Kazeko asked. She was suddenly very curious about Kagura.

“Oh, she came back and fought a few times,” Shippo said. “She had to. She couldn't disobey Naraku.”

“Why?” she asked. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Mitsuko was watching her with an odd expression.

“Naraku had her heart in his hands.” Shippo said, looking suddenly serious. “Literally. If she stepped out of line, all that he had to do was squeeze. It was the same for all of them.”

“Bet she hated that,” Kazeko said, without thinking. She noticed the same odd expression flicker across Isamu, Kazuki, Yuki and Haruka's faces.

“Oh, yeah,” Shippo said, in the same serious voice. “But in the end, she rebelled once too often. Naraku gave her heart back- full of shouki. She died slowly, in pain, but...”

“That sounds horrible,” Kazeko said, clutching her chest. She was thinking of the dream. How horrible must it have been, to melt, heart-first?

“She was smiling, actually,” Shippo said. “Because she wasn't alone.”

Kazeko remembered the feather in SesshoMaru's hands.

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The chorus is from a song that I've taken a particular liking to at the moment, “Answer”, by Sarah McLachlan. It's sad but hopeful, a tone that I found poignantly perfect for things as they are.

And thanks to Saphira404 for commenting! Writer's block is gone, so I WILL be updating as often as possible now!

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. ^_-