InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 26 ( Chapter 26 )

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Hayashi-sama,” the head monk called. “I sense youki.” Hayashi ran to the monk's side in an instant, watching the holy man lean over the side of the ship with a frown, staring straight to the west. There was a distant rumble, like thunder, and a flash like lighting. Yet, rare as it was, there was not a cloud in the sky.

“How many?” he asked sternly. The mink's brow creased.

“I am not sure, Hayashi-sama,” he said. “There is quite a large concentration of youki. There could be many of them, but it may simply be a few exceptionally powerful ones. Like the white one who nearly killed Yamazaki-sama. I am sure that there is more than one, however.” There was another distant rumble and a faint howl. “Of course, that may not be the case for much longer.”

“Very good,” Hayashi said. “I will inform Yamazaki-sama. We shall want to sail ahead of them, to lie in wait; he will decide when. Keep watch.”

“Of course, Hayashi-sama,” the monk said with a bow. Still, he seemed deeply concerned. Hayashi could not sense “youki”, but there was something about that of that white bastard that was worrying the monks.

“Hayashi,” Yamazaki said as Hayashi entered the general's cabin with a bow. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, rewrapping his wound. It was not bleeding but did not look as if it was healing well. Hayashi wondered if the general's days were numbered. “What have you to report?”

“Youkai, Yamazaki-sama,” Hayashi said. “Directly to the west. The monks believe that there are several of them, and highly powerful ones, too; it may even be the white one and his friends. They cannot sense humans, so we do not know for sure if the dark warriors are there as well, but I am planning to order the ships to shore in a few hours time. They appeared to be battling; those who survive will likely have wounds to lick, which shall slow them down.”

“Too much to hope that they'll all kill each other, eh?” Yamazaki remarked with a chuckle. “Well done. Carry on, Hayashi. But know that if that bastard is there, so will I be. And this time...” His hand tensed on his sword, gripping it so hard that his knuckles went white. Hayashi bowed in acquiescence.

“I will go inform the men, Yama-” Hayashi began, but was cut off. The monks were yelling on the upper deck.

“Youkai! Begone!”

Hayashi's blood ran cold. It was the middle of the night; most of the men were sleeping. If the youkai were attacking now...

There were sleepy calls as men awoke and tried to find out what was happening. Hayashi drew his sword and ran out into the corridor. He raised his sword and had it instantly slammed from his hand. He rolled on the floor as the youkai shot over his head.

“Yamazaki-sama-” he called and froze. The youkai was holding Yamazaki up by the neck, the general's feet dangling helplessly over the ground as he choked. The youkai was humanoid, but also grey and lined. Its eyes were glowing red as a low snarl rumbled in its throat. Hayashi slowly reached for his sword.

“You bastard,” the youkai growled. “You murdering bastard. You killed them all, you know? All of them. Every last damn one. I looked everywhere. And there's no-one else. I'm alone. We're extinct. Thanks to you.”

Yamazaki reached up to grasp the youkai's arm, as if to push it away, but the creature was superhumanly strong. Hayashi felt his hands close around the hilt of his sword and gently lifted it from the ground.

“I know your man there is lifting his sword,” the youkai growled. Hayashi froze again. “I know he's going to kill me. After all, he only has to stab in just the right place, and I've no doubt that he knows the right places. And you know what? I just have to squeeze. They'll kill me when I do, but I don't care. Because I'll get to see them again. My friends. My parents. My brothers. My mate and our son. You hear that, you bastard? People. Families. And you destroyed them all.”

The wolf tightened his grip even more, causing Yamazaki to choke out a gasp and begin to go blue. The wolf raised his hand and Hayashi saw claws. He raised his sword, but he would not be fast enough.

There was a soft, organic noise and a spray of blood.

The youkai looked down at the broken staff that was sticking out of his chest. It was glowing so brightly white that his very flesh was dissolving into dust around it. To Hayashi's shock, he smiled gently, the most serene and happy smile that he had ever seen. Without his expression changing in the slightest, he flung Yamazaki so hard into the wall that it broke, the general falling into the monk's quarters on the other side. Still smiling, he watched his body dissolve.

“Aimi,” he whispered. “Hideo. I missed you.” He closed his eyes. It seemed to Hayashi that the smile was the last thing to dissolve.

He stayed sitting there, sword in hand, for a long moment. Then a monk, clutching an injured arm, staggered past him and picked up his staff. A couple of other monks, also nursing wounds, ran past him to attend to Yamazaki.

“Yamazaki-sama!”

“Yamazaki-sama, are you all right?”

Yamazaki slowly and carefully stood up. The monks began helping him back to his bed. Unnoticed, Hayashi went up to the deck, to assist the more grievously injured monks and soldiers. Two were dead; men who, half-asleep, had stuck their heads out of their rooms and received claws. Hayashi helped the men safely burn them and store their ashes to be sent home. In everything that had to be done in the wake of the youkai's attack, he forgot about the youkai that had been sensed. By the time the monks had mentioned it again. They were quite a ways ahead of where they had planned to be, and found themselves between two large concentrations of youki.

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Isamu led, as ever. Beside him now, however, ran a huge orange fox. On its back sat Satsuki, Momo strapped tightly to her back, Satoshi and Hotaru in her arms. Kazeko was now carrying Tenseiga, instead of Kazuki having it in his belt, but no-one commented on this change. Even Kazuki had too much tact. Despite the huge revelations which had come to her, however, Kazeko seemed happy- positively glowing, really. She and Kiki kept sharing little glances, frustrating Hitomi no end until Kiki started whispering into her ear, presumable explaining what the joke was, which Isamu was frankly growing curious about himself.

They had rewrapped a few of Shippo's wounds after his transformation. The very worst remained, and while they were little more than scratches now, they still tended to bleed more than Satsuki was happy with, and the dressings that they had wrapped around his human form did not fit a fox. As such, unless some other opportunity presented itself, he was stuck in fox form since nightfall. This was no real problem, however, as he kept conjuring little images in the air, illusions that amused the children no end; Isamu felt that, should the Kitsune have something serious to say, he'd have no problem conjuring an image of that as well.

The sun was now cresting midday, and Isamu's eyes roved over the sides of the mountains through which they were now passing. Suddenly, he scented fire- and youkai.

He sprinted up the cliff-edge to a concealed cave, where what looked to be a family of about five youkai- bulls, he could tell by their scent and size- were cooking some fish over a fire. As Isamu touched down in the cave, his friends appearing behind him, the father and two sons had already stood up and used their bulk to shield the wife and small daughter from view. Isamu put Kiki and Hitomi down, held up his hands and bowed in a show of goodwill.

“We're not here to fight, we just need a break from running,” he explained.

“Are you all escaping from the armies too?” Mitsuko asked. The father nodded and signalled to his sons to sit down. It was possibly the large number of small children with them that made the family trust them. Mitsuko and the others began putting down their respective burdens, Haruka also digging out a tube of milk for Tsukiko. Satsuki climbed from Shippo's back and he ran over to the fire, curling up like a dog. Hotaru giggled and started digging in the pack for the rabbit that her father had caught earlier that morning, which had been wrapped up and saved to eat later.

“I am Ryoichi,” The bull said, holding his hand out to Isamu, who shook it. “In the past, I might have fought, but I have a family now and I will not risk them. If I might ask, why are the humans running too? Friends? Family?”

Haruka sat down next to Isamu. “Isamu is my fiancée,” she said, and he shot her a faint but slightly embarrassed grin, “And the others are my relatives- oh, except for Kazeko-san,” she added, gesturing towards the injured girl. One of the sons, who looked about nineteen- not helpful , as it was generally around nineteen that youkai slowed down considerably in aging, so he could have been a hundred for all Isamu knew- widened his eyes at the sling in which Kazeko's broken left arm was still kept.

“And even if he wasn't my future brother-in-law,” Yuki added, “We'd have had to run anyway; we're all simply too accepting of the notion that some youkai might not be evil, murdering bastards.”

“Unlike humans,” Kazeko muttered angrily. Mitsuko giggled a little. “So, did the army chase you out?”

“No, we left before they could find us,” Ryoichi said. “We heard that the Inu No Taishou had ordered everyone to move north or the armies would kill them.”

“So SesshoMaru was warning people?” Shippo said. Isamu started. He hadn't realized that Shippo could talk in his fox form. He'd heard that his uncle couldn't. Then he realized what Shippo had actually said.

“Oji-san?” Isamu said. “He's the Inu No Taishou now?”

“Oji-san?” the younger-looking son said incredulously. “SesshoMaru-sama's your uncle? But you're only a hanyou!” Isamu let out an involuntary growl at the “only”.

“Inu-hanyou,” Kiki said, unusually sharp.

“I heard a lot of youkai call their father `only' a hanyou,” Shippo remarked. “Didn't generally hear them say much else, apart from the screaming.”

The boy blinked and backed down as his father held a hand up.

“If we have no respect for those with their human sides, then we are no better than the humans,” his wife said severely. The little girl nodded. She looked about Kiki's age, and waved at them. Hotaru and Hitomi waved back.

“That is true,” Ryoichi said. “My apologies for my son's rudeness. Yes, upon the death of the old Inu No Taishou, over two hundred years ago, SesshoMaru-sama technically became Inu No Taishou, although it's not a title that's ever really been necessary, now that he no longer has a clan.” Isamu couldn't help the slight wince as the bulls' words conjured up memories of Yuudai's tale, but luckily Ryoichi didn't notice. “In any case, he retains the title and respect through the quite impressive feat of still being alive. Perhaps you have not been exposed to the law of the jungle which prevails among the wilder youkai, but it is this: no-one is supposed to be stronger than you. If someone is said to be the strongest, then you challenge them, to prove that they are not. And whoever survives the battle becomes the next to be beaten. Someone as illustrious as SesshoMaru-sama will have had hundreds of challenges; but there are those of us who have, as it were, outgrown the law, and see it as this: he is strong. And challenging him is considered almost certain death by now. If even half the stories about what he has survived are true, then you will be easy for him to dispatch. Better to stay home and care for your family. It is a creed based on brains rather than pride.”

“Amen to that,” Kazuki said. “I mean, that would be a problem if SesshoMaru was evil, but he's not, is he? It's not like he's running a reign of terror. He's been saving lives in the south. Sounds like good leader qualities to me.”

“SesshoMaru's a good person, whatever he says,” Kazeko said. Mitsuko chuckled.

“I'm surprised that he's that important,” Yuki commented, unwrapping some onigiri. All the small children- with the exception of Akira, who was watching the now-cooking rabbit hungrily- suddenly became magnetically attracted to her. “I mean, I know he's powerful, but do people support him out of respect, or fear?”

“We're not scared of anyone!” the younger boy burst out, looking insulted. His brother slapped him on the shoulder.

“Those who defer to him are from both camps,” Ryoichi said. “I personally have great respect for him. After all, he was one of those who fought Naraku and helped bring about the end of the cursed jewel. Also, I have great for his strength- not his physical strength, something that is easy to come by among youkai-”

“Not that he's short on that,” Kazuki remarked. “I wish I could've seen some of the battles between him and Inu-Oji-san. They sound like they were awesome.”

“Not while they were in progress, believe me,” Shippo said, a shudder rippling through the ginger fur.

“But also that he has never, as you put it, begun a reign of terror. Have you heard of InuYama?”

“Yeah,” Isamu said in a clipped tone that indicated that he'd heard quite a lot about InuYama. Ryoichi got the signal loud and clear and nodded sadly.

“I did not hear a large amount of what transpired there, but I heard enough,” he said, “enough to make me feel sick inside. There are youkai clans that have been decimated in feuds before, of course, although it was never full-scale genocide of an entire species of youkai before. Still, many higher youkai faced with such a desolate situation tend to... regress.”

“Higher...?” Kazeko began, but Mitsuko answered her quickly.

“Youkai who can take on humanoid forms and think of something other than their stomachs,” she explained, “Like myself and SesshoMaru-sama. These days, most higher youkai don't kill humans. There's no law against it or anything, it's just generally considered cruel, pointless and unnecessary, alongside more youkai making friends and even mates among humans. There are some `higher' youkai who still do kill humans, but on the whole, they're generally little more than mildly brighter lower youkai who have just enough power to wear a human form.”

“So `regress' means...” Kazeko ventured.

“Returning to the mentality of the lower youkai,” Yuudai confirmed. “Some who regress badly enough even shed their human forms. When faced with huge pain or suffering, all youkai feel the urge to let go of thought and memory and only eat when you're hungry and kill when you're bored.”

“Sounds like what Otou-san told us about,” Isamu said, “when he used to transform. Myoga-jii-san explained it. In times of danger, his youkai blood would urge him just to go full-on youkai and kill everything. Given that Otou-san's a hanyou and the youkai blood he inherited from jii-sama is, well, really powerful, it took him over entirely until Tessaiga's shield reasserted itself, forcing the youkai blood back. Is it like that- giving in to the urge to kill and kill and kill?”

“I think Okaa-san was talking about something like that once,” Yuki reflected. “And face it, Inu-oji-san's one thing. If SesshoMaru had regressed, face it we'd be pretty much fucked.”

“That's one way of putting it,” the older son chuckled.

“In any case, it's a good thing that he went for more or less the opposite,” the wife said serenely. “Anyway, are planning to go to the rendezvous?”

“Rendezvous?” Haruka said, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, well, the news went out that anyone who was heading to the islands should try to go to the remains of Hakureizan,” the younger son said. “Tons've youkai are gonna be there. Safety in numbers, y'know? Anyway, when winter gets too close, everyone's gonna move out together. We can all go to the islands and build new homes together.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Shippo said. Ryoichi frowned.

“Unfortunately, we're running blind,” he admitted. “I've heard of Hakureizan- who hasn't?- but I don't know the exact location.”

“I remember,” Shippo said, gnawing on a rabbit bone. Isamu wondered when he'd started eating. Akira was still stripping flesh from a leg, so he must have eaten fast. The rest of the children were licking the last grains of rice off of their hands. “I was there when it turned from a mountain to a pile of rubble. A lot of it wasn't even rock near the end- Naraku had absorbed an entire damn mountain. Do you have any idea how freaky it is to walk through a cave which suddenly goes soft and starts absorbing you?”

“Too bad it didn't finish,” Satsuki joked, strapping Momo to her back again.

“Then if it is no bother, we will follow you,” Ryoichi said.

“No problem,” Isamu said. “Shippo, you cool to lead? I don't' actually know where this place is, after all.”

“Pretty far north- not far from there to the sea- but on the other hand, we're fairly close,” Shippo said, standing up as his mate climbed onto his back. “We may have to run a ways into the night, though.”

“For the first time, i'm really grateful for Okaa-san's stamina training,” Haruka said. “Otherwise, I'd never be able to keep up with all of these youkai without my muscles hurting even after I've started moving around in the morning.”

“Tell me about it,” Yuki said. “When we get to Hokkaido, i'm gonna sleep forever.”

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Sorry for the wait! It took me forever to figure out how to move things on to where I needed them to be. We're actually in the run-up to the climax of the story now, although i'm not telling you exactly when that's gonna be... not because I like evil cliffies, just because I've never written ahead of what I've posted. What you see is all I've got. :P Anyway, hope you're enjoying the story, and if you've NEVER reviewed yet, please do! They make my day, they really do.

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. ^_-