InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What to do about evil ❯ kagome's decision ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 2

In the morning . . . soon after a sun rise.

"Hurry up! You idiots! We have to go after them!" Lord Hojo is yelling at his men.

'That kitsune last night. I always knew that they were untrustworthy. Betraying his master like that. I will have the magic items in that bag. Like that magic fire starter the kitsune gave me last night' he thinks as he watches his men prepare to march.

Flashback . . . last night . . . the village chiefs room.

Sakura is curled up asleep in a ball under a futon. Hojo is sitting next to a jar of water, and is washing the blood and other body fluids off his groin. He hears a small noise.

Shippo, hesitantly, appears in the doorway and says in a whisper, "lord Hojo, if you free me of the enchantment binding me, I can get you many magic items."

Hojo stares at the small kitsune and he looks around to make sure there is nobody else. Shippo pulls up a small rectangular object. He flicks one end and a small flame appears. "She has many other items like this." He lifts his finger and the flame vanishes.

"I can get that bag anytime I wish, kitsune." He growls "Why would I need your help?"

"She has many curses around it. I know them and can take them off. If you take the bag without my help . . . " Shippo smiles to reveal his fangs. "The kindest curse would turn you into a girl-child, like that one." He points to Sakura. "The others . . . " Shippo shudders.

"She did not act as if the bag was cursed earlier." Hojo states, with obviously suspicion.

"Yes, Killing the snake demon was a difficult. She hurt her head which caused her to change how she normally acts and has caused some of her spells to weaken. That is why I'm making a deal now. In a couple of days she'll recover and then."

"And then you will be stuck with her."

"Yes, Now is my chance to escape. I can help you ambush her and remove the curses from the bag. But you must give me a chance to a bathe in her blood, so I can be free of my enchantment."


"Hmm, exactly how can you help me ambush her?"

"When She leaves tomorrow morning, and it will be early, I will make sure that I and the dog demon leave to scout the trail ahead. I will then summon the woman with the sword up ahead to help us. With the spells controlling me and the dog demon weakened, we will finally be able to kill the man-hating bitch." Shippo smiles a nasty inu-yasha-like smile. "While this is happening, you can attack her. Only the monk would be there to protect her. And he doesn't care for her all that much."

"Hmmm, All I would have to do is follow and attack when there is just the two of them?"

"Yes, lord Hojo."

"Hmmm . . . you said she'll leave early."

"Yes, Lord Hojo."

"Show me I can believe you, give me that fire starter."

"She'll punish me, but if she's going to be dead tomorrow, that doesn't matter." Shippo smiles nastily and flips the lighter to Hojo. "I'll show you how to work it after she is dead. If you try to use it before then. It will burn you up."

"Hmmm . . . " Hojo purses his lips, and looks at Shippo. "If you betray me, I will kill you myself, kitsune." He says in a harsh tone.

"If I betray you, I cannot escape the enchantment. So, why would I betray you?"

"You have a deal, kitsune." Hojo says, 'it's lying to me, of course. But, fighting outside the village is better then in the village. Outside the village, means I can make up whatever story I need. If I fought in the village, there would be to many witnesses.'

End flashback

Hojo's men are in the woods, perhaps a couple of kilometers outside the village. There is trail snaking between tall trees in an old forest. There are plenty of trees, bushes and other places to hide.

"Lord Hojo!" one of the men comes running back to Hojo. He had been scouting ahead. "I can see the woman with the bag and monk up ahead. Just beyond that turn! They're alone like you said they would be!" he points as he talks in a low tone of voice to Hojo.

Hojo, smiles and turns to face his men. He and Kenji are their horses and the rest of the men are on foot, like normal. "Kill the monk. I want the woman alive. I need to question her." He orders. 'Stupid kitsune, I will find out that binding spell and bind you to me.' He thinks.

Hojo and his men pull out their weapons and prepare for battle. They then start to jog up and around the turn in front of them.


"Monk! Whore! Surrender or die!" Hojo yells when he can see them.

Miroku and Kagome are in the middle of the trail. Kagome's backpack is beside her. They were already standing and looking back the way they had come before Hojo yelled. Kagome's bow is in her hand with an arrow ready and pointing to the ground.

Miroku yells! "Stop! Or we attack!"

"Get Them!" Hojo yells and points with his sword. He stops and watches his men run past him to charge the monk and the woman.
"Now!" Kagome yells as she brings her bow up and she points it Hojo.

Suddenly and simultaneously . . .

From the right-hand side of the trail, Inu-yasha jumps down from the trees. He starts to attack the men charging Kagome. He is just using his claws. 'I'm not going to pull my sword when dealing with scum.'

From the left-hand side, Sango, in full armor, and Kirara, in full size battle form, appear from behind a large tree. They start attacking the men as well.

The fastest runner of the men comes within Miroku's reach. He swings his staff down on the man's neck. The man falls down dead with his neck broken.

Kagome releases her arrow at Lord Hojo. She hits him in the upper right-hand shoulder causing him to fall off his horse.

He lands heavily on the ground. He stands up, ignoring his bleeding shoulder and useless arm. A bloody hand grabs him by the neck and lifts him off the ground. Hojo eyes widen in fright as he stares into Inu-yasha's eyes. "You shouldn't have attacked, idiot!" Inu-yasha yells in Hojo face. "Now! I get to kill you!"

Hojo swings his sword at Inu-yasha, only to have inu-yasha's free hand grab Hojo's sword hand. Inu-yasha stops the movement of the arm and crushes the hand. The popping of the bones in the hand sounds like popcorn popping to Kagome, standing a few meters away. Inu-yasha releases the hand and the sword falls to ground falling from the shattered and bleeding hand. Inu-yasha then drags his claws across Hojo's waist ripping off his other weapons and leaving deep and bloody gouges across his stomach. Hojo's shattered hand grabs his stomach, trying to hold in his intestines as they slide bloodily between his broken fingers.

Hojo tries to kick at Inu-yasha, only to have Inu-yasha's hand grab the leg and twist the leg out the hip joint. Hojo yells in pain. The leg just hangs twitching, with blood dripping from where Inu-yasha's claws dug into it.

"Stop Inu-yasha!" Kagome yells!

"What, I thought the plan was to trick him into attacking us, so we could kill them and feel good about ourselves?"

"We are going to kill him. But . . . " Kagome walks up behind Inu-yasha.

While the two of them are talking, Hojo stares over Inu-yasha shoulder. All of his men are down and all of them are dead. In the time it took him to fall and get up, the party killed them. Sango is calmly putting her sword up, after cleaning it on the dead Kenji's clothing. Kirara has turned back into a normal sized cat, the cat that Hojo had totally ignored before, and is cleaning its claws. Miroku and Shippo are standing by the bag looking over the scene.

Kagome walks up to Inu-yasha and Hojo and orders, "Just hold him, Inu-yasha."

"You going to let him live?" Inu-yasha asks in surprise.

"No. He will die. My arrow was meant to kill him. But" Kagome turns around waving her hand at the dead bodies on the trail. "All of this blood was spilled because of MY orders." Her voice is cracking from emotion. "We could have left and these men would still be alive. It was my decision and my responsibility to go with Sango and Miroku's plan. This blood is on my hands." She stops and looks at her hands. And in a low voice, "and If this blood is on my hands. I need to have bloody hands."

She walks up to Hojo and bends to the ground and grabs a small sword that was hanging from his waist. "I'm sorry" she starts to say.

"Whore! I will see you in hell!" Hojo screams as he spits on Kagome's face.

With tears coming down her face, Kagome puts the blade on Hojo's throat. And with a convulsive swing of her arm, cuts his throat. Blood spurts out of the sliced throat and splatters over Hojo's body, Kagome and inu-yasha. Inu-Yasha spits on Hojo and throws him onto one of his men. "Good riddance."

Kagome drops the blade and grabs onto inu-yasha hugging him for dear life. "I'm a bad person . . . " she starts to mumble into his chest. Inu-yasha slowly returns the hug and starts to pet Kagome's head and hair. He looks at Sango and Miroku with confusion on his face.

"Hug her, inu-yasha. Tell her something."

"For once in your life, be kind and gentle."

Shippo runs over and grabs Kagome's leg and hugs it. "You're still Kagome and I still care for you. They deserved to die."

"Kagome, I . . . I, if you need to puke that's fine. I remember the first time I killed somebody, I had to go into the woods and puke." Inu-yasha softly says. Kagome just cries into inu-yasha's chest hugging him even harder. "Kagome, I, I do not know what to say." He whispers into her ear.

"That's Ok, just hold me . . . " she whispers back tears falling down her bloody face. As she is crying she thinks about her decision last night.

Flashback... last night... Kagome's thoughts...

'Ok, sigh, Let's think this through.' She starts to think, still petting Kirara. 'Our fight caused the damage to these people's corps. We have a responsibility to correct that. Leaving them, would mean that Hojo's tax will hurt them even more than normal. They would, at least some of them, probably starve to death. I can not leave them without trying to help.'

"So, Sango's plan of leaving is out." she states as she stares at the moon above.

'Jail. There is no modern justice system here. So that's out.' she grimaces, she would have really liked to be able turn to someone and let them handle this mess, but, there is no one.

'Organize the villagers.... This is the correct choice, I can feel it. But... Inu-yasha is correct, While we would spend the time here, who knows what Naraku would be up to. And he can and will cause more death and more destruction than Hojo. Stopping Naraku is the more important task.' She pulls of the bottle with the jewel shards, she stares hard at it and whispers, "There is no correct answer..."

'Stop them tonight... I want to do this. Stepping on Hojo's balls, grinding them in... but Miroku is correct, without killing them, we would not be stopping them. All we would be doing is delaying the robbing and raping, not stopping it.'

"That leaves..." She mumbles as she brings Kirara up close to her face. Kagome can feel her tears start to fall into Kirara fur. "That leaves..."

"Kirara, do I have any other choice?" She asks, never expecting an answer. But Kirara wiggles and Kagome pulls back so she can see the fire cat. Kirara turns smiles, showing all the sharp teeth Kirara possesses. Kirara also brings up her front right paw, with the claws extended and slashes downward. "Kill them all?" Kirara nods.

Kagome brings Kirara up to her face again and more tears fall. After a minute or so, she gets up, puts on her most serious expression and she says. "So be it." She walks back to the hut. She needs her bow and arrows...

End Flashback....

After a couple of minutes, Kagome takes a deep breath, lets out a heavy sigh, gives Inu-yasha a rib-crushing hug and then she lets go. "Inu-yasha. Thank you." She says as she bows to him. "I needed that."

"There's a stream over that way, Kagome. Do you want to come with me and we'll clean up? " Sango points into the woods as she makes her offer.

"Yes, Sango. I need to wash the blood off."

"See you boys later!" Sango says as she drags Kagome off.

"Left us with the dirty work . . . " Inu-yasha slowly says. "Hey Bitch! Mumble . . . " Miroku's hand is suddenly over Inu-yasha mouth.

"Inu-yasha, just this once, don't open that mouth." Miroku says as he clamps down on inu-yasha's mouth.

"Lets just clean up and go. Don't argue. Not today."

Inu-yasha growls deep in his chest, looking hard into Miroku's eyes and then sharply nods once. Miroku takes his hand away from inu-yasha's mouth and says, "Now, we get to pretend to be bandits. Hojo's father will assume they died fighting bandits and he will, hopefully, ignore the village. I'll take the left-hand side. You take the right."

"Feh"

later . . .

The girls have returned and the group is traveling down the trail.

The dead men have been striped and everything resalable has been wrapped up and loaded on the Hojo and Kenji's horses.

Kagome is talking to Miroku saying, "Remember, Miroku, when we get to that nearby town, you are to sell all this equipment and buy as much rice as you can. Then we'll bring the rice back here, and hide it. Then Shippo will, secretly, go into the village, and tell Sakura where the rice is hidden. Hopefully, that will help the village enough." She finishes with a sigh.

"Use all the money on rice? I thought that you might wish me to leave an offering at the temple in the town. For their souls." Miroku asks as he waves his staff back toward where the dead men are.

Kagome stops for a second, thinks, "No. I will supply something for that offering myself." She looks at Miroku and softly, "thank you, Miroku, for reminding me."



"Everyone needs a reminder sometimes, Lady Kagome, and this has been a stressful day."

A pause then, "Oh, Miroku, I know that you're only doing it to try and distract me and cheer me up. But. Please remove your hand." Kagome states in a very flat tone of voice.

"..." The hand is quickly removed...

Kagome hangs her head looking at her hands and as the group walks away thinking, 'Even with the blood gone, I can still feel it. I killed a man in cold blood today. Am I evil?'

End chapter 2

End story.

Sango's & Miroku's plan. Get Hojo to attack the party. Shippo's speech was Miroku's idea, BTW (with improvision by shippo) . Once Hojo attacks, the party would be defending itself. And killing in self defense is acceptable. They then pretend to be bandits. Hojo's father will assume bandits have killed his son and ignore the village. Sell the equipment on the samurai and use it to buy rice. The new rice will compensate for the rice destroyed by the fight with the snake demon.

Hmmm . . . explaining my thoughts . . . the feudal age in japan was a time of chaos, with no real law and order. Most fanfics have the villain be a demon. I wanted them to face a basically normal human. Hojo's personality and actions, by the way, I believe to be reasonably accurate for at least some, if not most, samurai at the time.

For those interested, I will have a small chapter of "when Friend find out" finished in a week or so. (I'm still blocked with kagome and her 3 friends. But I have come up with a scene for when Kagome returns to the past and meets Miroku.)

"Those who gang rape are better off because they have virility. They are closer to normal" is from the following article for the Japan times on June 28, 2003.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday condemned remarks by Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Seiichi Ota, who said that gang raping women by youngsters is evidence of their virility.
Ota, former head of the Management and Coordination Agency, reportedly told a seminar in Kagoshima Prefecture on Thursday that young men are becoming weak and lack the courage to propose marriage.

"Those who gang rape are better off because they have virility. They are closer to normal," Ota was quoted as saying in media reports on the seminar, which dealt with the nation's declining birthrate.
Ota made the statement as participants were discussing the arrest last week of five university students for allegedly gang raping a 20-year-old female student after a party.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn200306 28a1.htm

Thank you for reading
jeff shelton