Warning: Disclaimer: Author's Note:
‡ Ichi :: A Wrinkle in Time ‡
:: By PinkFalcon ::
‡ Through the Well ‡
"The Shikon no Tama," Jiichan began importantly, "is a Jewel that has changed the course of history. Long, long ago, when wars ravaged the land and demons ran rampant, the Jewel was created, though by who and why we may never know. Now, when I say 'demons ran rampant,' I mean that they too ravaged the land, killing any humans in their path . . ."
Kagome let her grandfather's words blend together as she stared at the new shrine merchandise in her hands, though not because she was transfixed by his tale. She had heard it a thousand times before. She was busy twirling the small pink ball around on its string, watching the light catch on the glue line running down the middle, and wondering why on earth people paid real, actual yen for the marbles. Were they actually stupid, or just gullible? "Jiichan," she said suddenly, interrupting the part where an ancient priest had made it his life's goal to find the Jewel—or had he wanted to sell it? Kagome shook her head. She could never remember. "Jiichan," she repeated to make sure she had his attention, "I have to eat breakfast so I can go to school now. Will you take care of Buyo while I'm gone today?" Said cat was rubbing his pudgy cheeks up against her knee and purring.
"Of course, of course," the old man rattled off. "But wait; don't you want your present first?"
Kagome squealed in delight. "You remembered!" she said happily, clapping excitedly.
"Of course," Jiichan laughed. He reached behind him to pull out a large present. "How could I forget my adorable granddaughter's fifteenth birthday? Here, enjoy. I'm going to go help your mother with breakfast.
He left with a wink as she undid the wrapping paper and flashed him a smile of gratitude. But what she found inside the box made her smile disappear and her nose crinkle. It looked like an old wrinkly blue platypus hand. Buyo sniffed it eagerly. "Mummified hand of a water sprite, or kappa," she read aloud from the card tied to one of the toes. She sighed heavily. He was always trying to give her useless, exotic presents like this; she should have known better. "Here you go, Buyo, enjoy." The cat took the hand from her happily and trotted out of the room, tail in the air. An instant later she heard her grandfather's shriek.
"Kagome! Do you have any idea what those things cost?"
Rolling her eyes, Kagome went to help her mother with breakfast. She wondered what the rest of the family had gotten her.
"Bye, Mom! Bye, Jiichan! See you after school!"
"Yeah, bye Mom! Bye Jiichan! Oneechan, did you know Buyo went into the well house again?"
Kagome stopped in her tracks and growled in irritation at her younger brother, who looked at her guiltily. "Sorry!" he apologized hastily, "but he ran in there with that thing you gave him right before breakfast! If I would have chased after him I wouldn't have gotten to eat! You better go get him out, though, you know he likes to hide dead stuff in there and Mom gets all mad . . ."
"Fine," she said huffily, "but you're coming with me." She grabbed the strap of Souta's backpack and dragged her with him to the old shrine built over the ancient Honekui Well. The tall wooden double doors slid open easily, and she shoved Souta inside head of her. Buyo was nowhere in sight.
"Are you sure?" she asked her brother.
"Yeah, he must've gone somewhere below the balcony."
"Then go get him." Souta looked up at her, a terrified expression on his face. "But Oneechan, I don't wanna go down there! It's where all the youkai come from!"
Kagome crooked an eyebrow at him. "You've been listening to Jiichan's stories again, haven't you?" She sighed heavily, and dumped her own pack to the ground. "Fine, I'll go get him, but then you have to get rid of whatever's left of that kappa thing. He's your cat." Souta nodded nervously and watched his sister descend the steps leading to the old well.
"Buyo," she called, bending low to peer around the well itself. The space beyond was utter darkness. "Buyo, come on, boy. Here, kitty kitty kitty. Come on out, you stupid cat."
"Uh, Oneechan, do you hear that?" called Souta from the railing.
Kagome froze, her heart beating madly. She had just experienced the strangest sensation from her left side, as if something in there were warm. What the hell—?
"Oneechan, I think it's coming from the well."
"Don't be ridiculous," scoffed Kagome, pushing herself to her feet. "It's just Buyo. He's probably behind the—YEEP! Buyo! You stupid animal!"
The cat was twining himself around her legs fondly, the half-chewed kappa paw dangling from his mouth. He mewed once and then bounded up the steps, disappearing in the bright sunlight streaming in from the open doors.
"Don't yell like that, Oneechan!" Souta said angrily, glaring down at her. "You scared me!"
"Well the next time why don't you come down and find your stupid . . . stupid cat . . ."
She trailed off as a light scratching sound started up from somewhere behind her. Souta froze too. "There it is again!" he said loudly. "That sound! It's coming from inside the well, I know it!"
"Don't be ridiculous," said Kagome, though her heart was fluttering madly from somewhere near her throat. She couldn't force herself to turn around. Why not? And why did her side feel like it was bathing in warm sunlight?
"Oneechan, watch out! ONEECHAN!"
Kagome shrieked as something hard and cold wrapped around her from all sides and yanked, pulling her from her feet. She reached wildly for a hold but couldn't find one in time, and shrieked again as she felt herself topple over the well's side. Bright blue and black swirling lights flared up from all around her, and Souta's horrified face disappeared altogether.
"Souta!" she screamed, struggling to get away from whatever was holding her. She turned around to get a better hold to shove, and her worst fears were confirmed. There, not a foot in front of her, was a grinning, fanged skull.
"YEEEEEEEE!" she shrieked madly, struggling to get away. A sudden fierce pain in her side made her stop, and she watched in horror as the skull grinned more widely.
"What joy . . ." it moaned deeply in a woman's voice. Kagome cringed away from it as something red appeared. It was growing a face. "What ecstasy . . . My flesh . . . it returns to me!"
Kagome shrieked again as eyeballs suddenly appeared, and focused intently on her. Below her she saw the woman's—for that's definitely what it was—six-armed torso connected not to legs, but to the end of a centipede that trailed away into the darkness. All of the air in her lungs left her.
"You have it!" the bug-thing bellowed, and a long, thin forked tongue rolled from its mouth.
"Eww!" Kagome screamed, and shoved away from it with all her might. "Get away from me, you freak!"
To her surprise, she felt flesh give way beneath her hand, and the centipede-woman went tumbling away from her.
"No!" it roared, glaring up at her as its materializing legs sailed by. "I cannot lose it now! Not when I am so close! The Shikon no Tama . . . Give it to me!"
Its voice faded away into the darkness, and Kagome scrambled madly to get away from the single arm still attached to her shoulder. It fell away from her and disappeared as well, and she found herself completely alone, weightless in what looked like the Milky Way.
A moment later she felt her feet touch the ground lightly, and the shimmering lights vanished as if they had never been there at all. She looked around her and saw that she was at the bottom of the well. What in the world . . . ?
Was it a dream? she wondered dumbly, pushing herself to her feet. She glanced down and swallowed at the sight of the lone appendage she had just thrown away from her. Real? But how in the world could something like that have been real? And the Shikon no Tama? Why on earth would it have demanded that stupid marble?
"Souta!" she called out desperately. "Souta, go get Mom and Jiichan! Souta!" When there was no reply for a few minutes she cursed to herself. "Stupid brat," she mumbled darkly. "Run away, will he . . ." She glanced down at her soiled uniform. Perfect. Now she had to change, she was probably late enough already.
Glancing up, she was surprised to catch sight of a few straggling vines reaching only a few feet from the ground. Had those always been there? Had her mother planted them recently to give the old well a bit of life? She smiled grimly. Mom was always doing things like that. But would it hold?
Well, since that chicken of a brother had run off without her he could take the blame if they snapped, she decided angrily, and pulled herself up with one. It was extremely difficult, and the twenty-foot well was much deeper than she had ever thought it was before, but after at least half an hour of struggling she finally managed to grasp the top, though she was now dirtier than ever. She pulled herself up to sit on the lip and paused, wondering why everything was so bright around her. Then she looked up.
She was sitting in the middle of a forest.
Rubbing her eyes, she tried again, but the scene before her didn't change. All around her was a soft meadow, surrounded by towering trees and thick green bushes. What the—
Where was her house? Where was the old mini-shrine built over the well? Where the hell was Souta? How had she managed to fall down the well in her shrine and come out here, obviously miles away from Tokyo? Had she passed out at all? Was she missing something important?
Up ahead a bird called and, looking up, Kagome caught sight of the topmost branches of the familiar Goshinboku and grinned. She would know that old tree anywhere! It was right next to the house! She set off for it at a run.
Upon arrival, though, she stopped dead in her tracks. The house was nowhere in sight and there, a few feet above the ground, was a young boy about her age. She thought he was sleeping at first, then noticed the arrow protruding from his bright red priest-looking robes, right where his heart should be. Her hands flew to her mouth and she gasped. He had been killed! What was more—his long, flowing hair was a soft white and he had dog ears sticking out from behind his bangs. Whoever had killed him had humiliated him first! What the hell!
She looked more closely at him, and realized he was also held to the tree by thick roots and vines. It looked as though the tree had grown around him. Was he even real, or had someone stuck a statue up there as a joke? When? He hadn't been there this morning, had he?
She approached him cautiously, expecting Souta to jump out at her from behind a tree at any given second and yell "BOO!" When he didn't appear by the time she reached the thick roots rising up from the ground she found herself climbing them. She wanted to get a closer look at the boy. Was he really dead? Maybe he was just knocked out, and that arrow was holding him in place. She couldn't see any blood.
"Hello?" she called out softly. "Are you okay? Um . . ." She pulled herself to her feet just in front of him and reached out a trembling hand to cup his cheek—then jerked away sharply. He was cold! Not bar-of-a-bike-left-out-in-winter cold, but definitely not alive, and definitely not a statue! How long had he been here? Was he murdered? Had this been reported?
She looked around for someone to tell, but there was no one there. Where was she supposed to go now? What was she supposed to do? Why was this poor boy the only other person she could find? Her eyes drifted down to his tanned hands, barely visible from beneath his flowing robes, and she was surprised to see that his fingernails were long and sharp, almost like claws. She found her attention fixed on his ears again. They looked soft and real . . . They hadn't pinned real dog ears to his skull, had they?
She was overcome by the urge to touch them and make sure. Placing a light hand on his sturdy chest to steady herself, she reached up and gently brushed the light pink skin of one with her finger. She almost fell over in alarm. They were warm! But how could they feel alive when the rest of him was so obviously . . . She gasped when she realized the skin beneath the robes under her hand had warmed as well. Did that mean he really was alive?
Curious, she reached out her other hand to touch the opposite ear. It was just as warm as the first, and it gave the briefest of flicks at her touch. They were so soft . . . She found herself rubbing them like she did Buyo's, and remembered the cat's pleased purr. They felt so real. Hesitantly, her fingers traced the soft skin to the base, where they widened a bit like Buyo's before connecting smoothly to the soft skin of the boy's head. Kagome frowned. She couldn't tell where the glue was supposed to be. Then the image of the half-centipede half-woman thing came to her mind and she gasped. Was this guy half-dog?
"Oi, who goes there?"
Kagome almost jumped out of her skin at the gruff male voice from behind her. She jumped again when an arrow thudded into the wood just beside the boy's head, and another next to his shoulder. She pressed herself up against his warm chest, praying for whoever was shooting not to hit her—or the boy. The arrows ceased for a moment, and there was a mumbling from behind her, and then gruff arms yanked her down and she felt her wrists and ankles being lashed together tightly. She caught sight of two men and shrieked once before they gagged her with a disgusting-smelling dirty cloth and one slung her over their shoulder. It was a struggle for her not to pass out at their stench. What the hell was happening to her?
Wind . . . He could feel it, blowing gently through his tangled white hair, lifting strands that hadn't been disturbed in decades. No wind was supposed to blow here. Here was a cursed place where nothing, not even the gods' breath, dare disturb the malicious demon at rest.
Scent . . .
Trees, flowers, demons, insects, animals. He could smell them all easily, could see them in his mind as if he were not but a small distance away, staring into their wide, frightened eyes. Everything smelled so vibrant after his extensive rest, so strong. But scent was not supposed to reach him here. Nothing had penetrated the miko's barrier in fifty years. She had designed it to be that way—and longer. His sensitive nose twitched eagerly, overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of colorful aromas.
Sound . . .
He could hear the birds. They were hiding in the trees. Hiding from him. He felt his lips twitch up into a small smile that lasted only the briefest of moments. There were other animals too, bigger ones. And insects as well. All were fleeing him, their skittering footsteps retreating hastily from his murky grove. They feared him. His wakening scent alone overwhelmed them, though it was not nearly enough to overcome their tangy fear; it was so strong he could taste it. His lips twitched up again.
Darkness . . .
His vision was dimming; not that it had brightened much. It wasn't the setting sun—no, the forest told him it was far too early for that. It was his consciousness, wavering again. He let it. He could still recall that strange sensation on his delicate ears, soft fur tickling pink skin as the strands attempted to settle themselves. And her scent had not yet had time to fade. She was back again, back here in this wretched hellhole of a forest. Soon he would be back as well. His vision dimmed again, the once vivid, living forest pulsing around him retreating to a vague, fuzzy awareness. A moment later he could feel nothing at all.
His lips twitched once, then were still. A solitary fang flickered for a moment in the dappled sunlight, and a frog-youkai scrambled from the ominous scent spreading rapidly throughout the forest.
"For the love of God, will somebody please tell me what the hell's going on here?"
The villagers, clumped into a dense crowd around her, whispered behind their hands, some drawing back from her outburst as if afraid. Afraid of what, Kagome wanted to know. A bound girl, still in her revealing school uniform? Why did they even make girls wear these damn short skirts to school? They sure as hell weren't proper enough for these smelly people!
Grunting, she tried tugging on the thick ropes binding her wrists and feet together. Thank God they hadn't hog-tied her! She felt herself blush at the mere thought. Distracted by disturbing images, she tugged too hard and cried out softly when the coarse rope dug into the already raw flesh of her wrist. Dammit, why did they tie these things so tight? she thought angrily. Who did they think she was, Houdini?
"Listen," she said heatedly, trying to keep back the involuntary tears welling up in the corner of her eyes from the pinch of the ropes. "What you people are doing is illegal, you hear me? Illegal! As in, you could be arrested! And don't think I won't press charges! These ropes hurt, dammit!"
"Hush, girl. They won't let you go if you shriek at them."
Kagome jumped at the cackly voice. An old, squat one-eyed woman wearing the traditional robes of a priestess had materialized near her elbow, and was bending down to get a good look at Kagome's bruised wrists. "Stay silent," she said quietly, near Kagome's ear. "They believe you are someone you are not, and I alone can convince them otherwise."
"But—"
"Hush. Anything you say will only make it worse."
Kagome felt her cheeks heat in anger. She was bound hand and foot in the dust of some poor village in what looked like Somalia or something, only the poor smelly people were wearing old Japanese robes instead of whatever they wore in Somalia, and she was obviously miles away from any skyscrapers if she couldn't see them from here, which meant she was miles away from Tokyo—Where was Somalia, anyway?—and at the hands of some old smelly men with missing teeth and a freaky old lady who was now murmuring something unintelligible to her elbow, of all things. What the hell could she say to make things worse?
A cooling sensation swept suddenly though her arms, forming beneath the callused fingers of the old woman, and the pain in her wrists seemed to lessen. Kagome looked at her sharply, but she was already standing to face the crowd. What in the world—?
"Kaede-sama!" someone yelled. "An evil witch!"
"Hai!" someone else agreed. "A kitsune-youkai, bewitching itself to resemble the revered Kikyo-sama!"
"Iie!" the old woman, Kaede yelled back. "All of you have it wrong! No mere kitsune could take on my elder sister's form so effortlessly!"
"But she—"
"Is obviously just some girl from a nearby caravan who was separated from her family," the woman finished for them. She turned to look down at Kagome. "Am I right, child?"
"Hell, no!" Kagome shrieked, now bordering hysterics from her unbelievable position. "I am not from some Somalian caravan! I'm not from anywhere even remotely near here! I'm from Japan—good ole Tokyo!—and I did not get separated from my family in that stupid forest! I was obviously kidnapped and drugged and left there by some evil murderer or something as a sick joke of theirs! But you people! You're no better! You can't go around, tying up anyone in your precious little forest just because they happen to be there! And that boy! What the hell did you do to him, gluing dog ears on his head and dying his hair white? You can't go around tying dead people to trees, either! Ropes should be banned in Somalia!"
She was panting now, spent after her rant. All around her the people were talking to themselves again, and staring at her in disgust or astonishment or a mixture of the two. A lot of them looked afraid. Kaede was one of those with a mixture of both.
"You met with Inuyasha?" she whispered, her aged voice trembling. Everyone quieted to await her answer.
"Inu-who?" demanded Kagome in confusion. "Look, I didn't meet with anybody in that stupid forest! I saw somebody, that guy you guys shot and tied to a tree, but that was—"
"You lie!"
Kagome looked up. There was a man in his mid-thirties glaring down at her, pointing an accusing finger. Kagome's nose crinkled involuntarily at the overwhelming stench wafting up from his soiled yukata. Good God, didn't these people bathe?
"Look, Smelly-san, I am not lying. I was by myself the whole friggin'—"
"No one wanders alone in the Inuyasha no Mori and lives!" he interrupted, eyes wild. Kagome cringed back from him. Were all these people crazy? "Inuyasha's Forest is cursed!"
Kagome was utterly confused. Forest of the Dog-Demon? Cursed? She snorted. Cursed by what? The old Egyptian gods? Did Somalians even have gods?
"That demon must have sent her here!" someone yelled wildly. "After a fifty-year sleep, it longs to walk again! Kill the demon-girl before she murders us all!"
"Hai! Only a youkai would dare wear those clothes!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kagome demanded. "What sleeping—" She gasped suddenly. Sleeping demon? Dog-Demon? Inu-Yasha? Could it be—?
She snorted at her own stupidity. Of course he wasn't a demon. Demons didn't exist. They were simply a figment of the paranoid or uncivilized mind. This village was obviously prone to both.
But then, what was that huge centipede thing that had dragged her down the well in the first place?
Kaede noticed the girl's sudden stillness and raised her gnarled hands into the air, demanding silence. Kagome was surprised when the roar of the crowd dimmed to a low aggravated gurgle. "This girl is not a demon!" Kaede declared loudly. "Nor is she my sister! Inuyasha still sleeps, as we have all seen with our own eyes! He has not the magic to send out another!"
She looked back to Kagome again. "Come, child. I will take you to my home. Perhaps there you can explain to me this 'Somalia' place where you are from."
"But I'm not from—"
"Kaede-sama, are you sure that's wise?" a man asked, cutting Kagome off. Kagome glared at him.
"I will not have her killed until I have made certain that she is a demon's work," Kaede answered coolly. Kagome gulped. Were they really serious about that killing thing? But—but that was illegal! "I sense no change in Inuyasha's curse," Kaede continued. "He has not awoken. Now please, go about your work and leave the girl to me. I have some power left yet in these old bones."
Grumbling in dissatisfaction, the villagers stomped off obediently, leaving Kagome and the old woman alone in the dirt. People constantly walked around them as they went from one place to another, glaring at Kagome as they passed her. Kagome wished they would go away, but it looked as if this road was a popular one, stretching from one side of the tiny village to the other. Perfect.
"Here, let me remove your bindings," said Kaede unkindly, bending over. She took an arrow from an old-fashioned quiver lying beside a strung longbow on the ground and sliced open the ropes lashing Kagome's ankles. The cool air stung the raw wounds immediately, but Kagome was grateful they were off. Now for her—
But to her surprise, the old woman replaced the arrow and stood, turning away from Kagome and gesturing for her to follow. Kagome hastily stood up. "But my hands—"
"Will have to remain tied until I can discern exactly who you are. Now quiet, follow me."
Reluctantly, Kagome followed the old woman through wide open, dusty roads. None were paved, or even really marked as streets. They were more like well-worn paths from one door to the next. All of the houses were thatched and primitive, but definitely not of Somalian-style, now that she took a closer look. No, it looked like . . . like she was in a medieval Japan. Even the people, clumping about the huts and whispering to each other as they passed, looked Japanese. The old-fashioned mage hairstyle seemed particularly popular among the men.
Kaede led her up to one hut and held up the thatched reed mat covering the doorway. "Inside," she said quietly. "Sit down by the fire and tell me where you're from."
"Tokyo," announced Kagome proudly, lowering herself to the wooden floor. Thank God they at least had tatami mats here! But then, that meant this really was Japan . . .
"I have not heard of this, 'Tokyo,'" said Kaede warily, settling herself into a comfortable position across from Kagome. "Is it in Somalia?"
"What? No, Tokyo's in Japan! Where is this?"
Kaede was looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face. "This is Japan," she said evenly. "About one ri above Edo."
"Edo?" Kagome squeaked. "But Edo is—is Tokyo, a long time ago—"
"It has always been called Edo," said Kaede. She stoked the fire a bit with a long stick she seemed to have procured from nowhere.
"Well, where I'm from there's a Tokyo that used to be called Edo, but that was a long time ago."
"And where do you come from?"
Kagome sighed. She felt like she was being interrogated by a shrink. Her head was beginning to ache—and her throbbing wrists were definitely not helping her concentrate. "Look, I didn't go anywhere," she said irritably, staring into the low fire. She wanted to rub her itchy eyes, but her hands were still behind her back. She closed them instead, and sighed deeply. "I chased my stupid fat cat down our stupid old well in the backyard," she started to explain, "and I must have hallucinated some huge centipedal thing that—"
"A what?"
Kagome looked up, surprised at the intensity in Kaede's tone. "I dunno, some huge snake-thing with way too many legs—"
"A youkai?"
Kagome laughed. "Of course not! Youkai don't exist! It was probably just a brain fart. God knows I've been under enough pressure lately to earn one."
Kaede's eye narrowed. "Here, youkai exist, and they terrorize our village almost daily. I do not know where you are from, but from your appearance, and from your story, my best guess is that you time-traveled somehow through the Honekui Well."
"The what-Well? How did you—"
"The hunters saw tracks coming from the well, leading to Inuyasha's tomb."
"Whose?"
Kaede sighed. "I will talk of Inuyasha in a moment. First, I need to know what happened to the demon."
Kagome laughed again. "This is ridiculous! I told you, demons don't exist!"
Kaede wasn't amused. "They do here. Inuyasha is a demon. He attacked this village fifty years ago and killed my sister, a miko who managed to seal him into an eternal sleep before she died. You look remarkably like her. You were also found petting the dog-demon earlier. You can see why the villagers are so suspicious—and myself as well."
Kagome stared at the old woman, but there was no sign of amusement in her stern eyes. She felt a tinge of panic lace through her. "You—you can't be serious. You can't be telling the truth. Time-travel? Through a well? Time-travel's impossible! There's that whole, 'If so-and-so went back in time to save so-and-so, then so-and-so would never have died, which means so-and-so would never have bothered to go back to save him, which means so-and-so would have died, which means—"
She was cut off by a piercing shriek from outside. Kaede dropped her stick and bolted to her feet, longbow and quiver held tightly, her expression stern. "Demon," she said ominously, staring hard at the lightly waving reed mat covering the door. "You shall soon see what exists and what does not."
Then she bolted outside. Kagome watched the mat sway shut behind her, glued to her tatami in shock. A demon? Really? But then, would that mean she really had traveled back in time, to some point in history when Tokyo was still known as Edo? When?
There was another scream from outside, followed closely by the terrified neighing of horses and the frenzied footsteps of fleeing people. Kagome pulled herself to her feet, legs aching almost as much as her bound hands, and looked to the door hesitantly. What would she do if that thing out there really was a demon? Would that really mean, then . . . really? But . . . really?
With no hands, she was forced to shove the mat aside with her head, and when she looked up again on the other side she was almost flattened under a falling horse. Stumbling back against the wall, Kagome shrieked, unable to tear her eyes away from the frothy white ones of the dead horse, its neck twisted around at an insane angle, bloody ribs poking through a hole in its chest. Everywhere people were running, some for cover and some for bows and arrows. Kagome looked up at what they were shooting at and froze.
There, some twenty feet over the village, sat the centipede thing from earlier, a dead woman draped from its human-looking mouth. In one hand it held the dripping flesh and one leg of the horse at Kagome's feet, and now it locked eyes with the girl, dropping the woman to grin maliciously.
"You!" it snarled, its voice low and gravelly. It dropped the horse appendages. "You have the Shikon no Tama! Give it to me now!"
It began to crawl over, forcing men and women alike out of its way as easily as if they were the insect instead of it. Kaede suddenly appeared at Kagome's side, looking frightened. "The Shikon no Tama?" she demanded. "You have it?"
"The what?" screamed Kagome. "I don't even know what it is! That—that thing keeps demanding it!"
The centipede was laughing now. "Vile, worthless human filth," it chuckled, coming closer. "Anyone who stands between me and the Jewel will die!"
"It—it only wants me?"
"What?" demanded Kaede. "Don't be stupid! It wants us all!"
"No," said Kagome, shaking her head. "No, it wants me. It's the one that chased me earlier. But I don't—"
"The well!" someone shrieked. "Lure it to the well! It's our only hope!"
"Yes," said Kaede. "But how to—"
"What well? The one I came from?" Kagome demanded, taking a step away from Kaede's hut. If I can get it to chase me out of the village, no one here will be hurt. It only wants me for some reason.
"Yes, but—"
"Where is it?"
Kaede narrowed her eye at Kagome, who winced as another man was crushed beneath the oncoming demon. "Deep in Inuyasha's Forest. We must lead it there to—"
"Which way's the forest?" There were trees on almost all sides. How did these people get around without compasses?
"East," Kaede pointed. Kagome followed her finger, and was surprised to see a dull purplish light hovering above a small patch of trees there.
"Is the well near the light?" she asked. Kaede gaped at her open-mouthed.
"Yes, but—no mortal can see that hellish light! Girl, wait!"
But Kagome was already gone, running as fast as she could with her hands tied. The centipede-youkai slithered easily in her wake, laughing.
She was coming. He could smell her, hear her, taste her. He opened his eyes, golden in the silver light of the waning moon, and was met by the glowing green sleeping forest instead of the dull light grey of before. Everything with legs was gone, scared away by his wakening presence, and he delighted in it. For the first time in fifty years he was alive . . .
And she was coming ever closer. He tasted the air again, taking pleasure in the ability to twitch his nose freely for the first time in ages, and scented a large centipede-youkai. From the sounds his ears picked out it was chasing her. Straight to him. Good. Let them come. He would rip her to pieces, as he should have done years ago.
He winced as his heart contracted suddenly, unexpectedly. He cursed aloud, unable to clutch his chest with his pinned hand. Instead he forced away the pain, forcing himself to take pleasure in the images he procured of ripping her limb from limb and feeding her to ravenous wolves. She deserved it. For what she did to him, for making him believe and then betraying him, for befriending him and then attacking him, she deserved to die.
The sound of cracking knuckles cut through the silent night like claws through flesh. Inuyasha smiled.
Her footsteps sounded faulty, weak, unsure. The youkai was gaining on her. She was panting, the tangy smell of fear as evident as if she were bathing in it. Far, far behind her Inuyasha could hear a group of clumsy, fumbling humans. He recognized the putrid stench as that of her village. So, they were coming to aide her, were they? His smile widened. Then they would die as well.
They would all die. And for the first time in fifty years, he would live.
Not far away, Kagome was running, panting hard. She couldn't keep up this pace for much longer. Already her legs and sides burned, aching for rest. But the light . . . the light was just ahead. If she could just get the thing in the well, like Kaede had said, she would be okay, right? Right?
Another branch reached up from out of nowhere, pulling her from her feet. She hit the damp foliage with a winded, "Oof!" and scrambled back to her feet. Not much further now. Her cheek was bleeding from the fall. Didn't matter. Almost there . . .
Suddenly the forest floor ended. With a cry of alarm she fell down an unexpected hill, rolling to a stop some feet from the crest. Looking up, she cursed. In the light of the moon she could just barely make out the silhouette of the shunned boy with dog ears from here. "Dammit," she panted, "this is not where I was headed! Where's the well from here? Which way did I come from?"
There was no sound from behind her. She pulled herself to her feet anyway, wincing as her arms tugged painfully at her shoulder joints. Where did the centipede go? Was it hiding? Did it leave? Or was it waiting to pounce?
Kagome swallowed hard. Around her the wind whistled ominously, tugging at her hair and tattered skirt. It was the only sound audible but for the wind whistling through the tops of the trees. She was alone here, in the middle of a dark forest in ancient Japan—a dark forest that belonged to a demon, nonetheless. She shivered. Where was the well?
"What's the matter, Kikyo? Taken to toying with your victims before you slaughter them?"
Kagome shrieked and jumped, banging painfully into a tree behind her. There, where the boy's eyes might be, were two pinpricks of golden light.
He was alive.
Gasping as her heart skipped a few beats, she leaned back heavily against the tree, too terrified to move. First demons, now zombies? What the hell was this place? What could she do? The well was somewhere over there. She couldn't get away from a giant centipede and a zombie!
"Well? What are you waiting for, Kikyo? Take her out with a single shot! After all . . . you did it to me."
Kagome frowned and managed to gain some of her breath back. The zombie hadn't moved. She remembered seeing vines and bark wrapped around it earlier. Was it stuck? "W-what do you mean, Kikyo?" she stammered. "And why are you alive? You have an arrow in your chest! You're dead!"
The zombie chuckled. "It'll take more than some enchanted arrow to kill me. I'm a demon, remember? Now go! Slay your opponent! After all, you know how evil my kind is. You of all people would know something like that."
Kagome frowned. Was it being sarcastic? "Who—who are you?"
The boy—zombie? demon?—laughed again, his voice harsh. "Has your immaculate memory failed you, miko? Do you not remember the great youkai of the Western Lands, the Lord Inuyasha?"
"Inuyasha?" Kagome gasped. So the boy killed on the tree was the demon Inuyasha? And Kikyo was—
"Wait, I'm not Kikyo!" she gasped, stepping off the tree a bit. She wanted to see him better. It felt weird talking to two gold dots, even if they were the eyes of a demon. But he was stuck, right? Stuck to that tree by that Kikyo woman. He couldn't move. And the centipede? Well, she didn't think it was around here anymore. Had it gone back to the village? Had the demon frightened it away to search of easier prey?
Kagome cursed to herself. What if it had? And what if that prey happened to be the villagers? She had to go back and help them!
"Look, Inuyasha," she said hurriedly, "I'm not Kikyo. My name is—"
Inuyasha's piercing laugh cut her short. "It comes!"
There was a rustle from above and behind her, and suddenly a fierce pain shot through her arms and back. She was knocked from her feet as something rushed into her, and she pushed herself up again, realizing that her hands were unbound. They were also covered in warm blood.
The centipede was standing over her grinning, bloody ropes dangling from its fangs. "Next it will be your entire hand, and then your head!"
It leaped for her. Kagome shrieked and stumbled back clumsily. She could hear Inuyasha's daunting laughter getting louder behind her as she staggered toward him, the centipede getting closer and closer . . .
Suddenly an arrow flew from out of nowhere, piercing the human-looking skin of the centipede's torso. The demon screamed, rearing up, and Kagome looked beyond it to see Kaede and the rest of the villagers crouching behind the crest of the hill she had fallen down, bows leveled. The centipede roared and lunged for them instead, leaving Kagome behind.
"Pathetic," sneered Inuyasha, watching them scatter. Kagome looked up. He was right above her now, clearly visible in the silvery moonlight. He was smiling crookedly, somehow managing to glare at her at the same time. "The great miko Kikyo, unable to take care of even a weak feral demon!"
"Hey!" Kagome interrupted, glaring up at him. She held her bleeding hands close to her chest, trying to rub the stinging ache from her new wounds. The centipede-woman had cut both hands open the length of the wrist, but it wasn't deep. "Look, you," she said, meeting his slitted eyes. "I am not Kikyo! My name is Kagome! Kikyo died fifty years ago, sealing you!"
Inuyasha didn't look fazed in the least. ""Have you gone mad, witch?" he sneered. "You reek of that priestess! Do you think I would mistake the stench of the ningen you murdered me?"
"The hell! You're not dead!" Inuyasha glared at her. Kagome stepped closer, meting his fierce gaze evenly. "My name is Kagome! Ka-go-me! Kagome!"
"Fuck what you say! You're Kikyo, you lying—" His nose twitched suddenly. It might have been cute, had the circumstances not been what they were, but now it was just satisfactory. Kagome humphed in content.
"Some great lord dog-demon you are," she snorted. "Can't even tell the difference between me and some dead woman." He looked confused, his amber eyes narrowed. His nose was still twitching, his furry ears straining forward in what looked like curiosity. He met her eyes again, but this time they weren't thinned in anger like before.
"You're not Kikyo? Then who . . . ?"
Kagome snorted again, just for effect. "Not Kikyo."
His gaze slid from hers. He looked . . . scared? Or was he just confused?
"But . . . I woke up . . . "
"Look," Kagome sighed, her anger ebbing away. He reminded her of a lost puppy. "I don't know why I look so much like this Kikyo girl, but I'm telling you, I'm not her."
He met her eyes again, dark brows knitted in uncertainty. "But I woke up," he said softly. "Only Kikyo could have broken her own spell. If you're not her, then why—ACK!"
Suddenly the centipede-woman was behind Kagome, knocking her hard into Inuyasha. She felt cold, hard hands wrap around her waist and panicked, grabbing the closest thing to her—two locks of hair hanging in front of Inuyasha's ears.
"Shit!" he yelled, amber eyes watering. "You witch! Lemme go!"
The centipede tugged Kagome back, yanking Inuyasha's head off the tree. Kagome screamed. "I—I can't! Let me go, you stupid bug!"
"You let me go, ningen!"
The centipede laughed. "So, Inuyasha, you are awake. Good. Your body will nourish me once I have devoured the Shikon no Tama." It pulled harder, but Inuyasha didn't yell this time. Kagome look up at him, tears flooding her own eyes. It felt like she was being pulled apart. But she refused to let go!
"The Shikon no Tama," Inuyasha breathed, his eyes focusing on the demon behind her. "You have it, bug?"
"Soon," the demon chortled. She pulled harder, and Kagome screamed.
"Get off, you thing!" She released a lock of Inuyasha's hair to shove at the centipede and immediately heard a ripping sound and a roar, then found herself falling, landing hard on the ground at Inuyasha's feet. Beside her lay the three remaining arms of the demon, twitching madly. Kagome screeched and stumbled back, away from Inuyasha. He was staring at her in confusion. So were the villagers.
"I—I don't know what I did!" she yelled, standing clumsily. "It happened in the well, too! I don't know why! Someone shoot it! YEEEEE!"
It was coming at her again. She tried to run away, but she had time only to turn before she felt sharp fangs rip into her side. With a cry of pain she fell, screaming madly as the flesh of her waist was ripped from her body. A weight left her side suddenly, and she felt cold for a brief instant, as if she had just stepped out into the winter air. She wanted to turn and run back inside the warm, safe house. Her eyes slid momentarily out of focus as she realized she was missing something very important.
My spine? she thought angrily, snapping out of the reverie, but the wound wasn't that bad. She hit the ground and rolled over, coming face to face with a small pink glass ball, glinting enchantingly in the bloody moonlight. Everyone around her was silent. She was silent. Where . . . where had that come from? Had that thing come from her?
"I knew it!" the demon roared triumphantly from above her, breaking the silence. "I knew you were hiding it from me! Now die, ningen!"
It lunged for Kagome, ramming her up against Inuyasha and pinning her there with its long tail, then wrapped it tightly around the tree. Kagome grunted, feeling as though she had been kicked in the stomach as Inuyasha's pinned hand unintentionally struck her midriff. Her head swam. "No!" Inuyasha was screaming from somewhere above her. "That's mine! Give it here, you belly-crawler!"
The centipede laughed, inching up the length of Kagome's body to come face to face with Inuyasha. He glared daggers at it, just as immobile as Kagome.
"The great Inuyasha the half-breed," it chuckled, licking Kagome's blood from its lips. "I have dreamed of meeting you, zasshu. A half-demon seeking the Shikon no Tama. As if it would be wasted on the likes of you!"
Kagome was still stunned, gasping for breath. Half-breed? Half-demon? Inuyasha? Half-what?
She felt Inuyasha's body vibrate beneath her as he snorted. "Don't insult me, ground-sucker," he sneered. "Your kind is lower than me—a bunch of lowlife worms who feed from the dirt and filth of the earth! If I'd wanted to, bug, our meeting would have been much shorter, and your bones would be feeding the grass!"
The centipede laughed. Kagome felt Inuyasha's muscles tighten at the sound. His fist clenched under her stomach. "So you say! How you jest, meek, pitiful hanyou. And yet so powerless beneath that miko's spell! Watch, halfling filth, as I devour you and the Jewel!"
"NO!" Inuyasha cried, jerking forward and grinding Kagome painfully up against the centipede's sharp skin. The demon leaned toward the ground and leisurely licked up the small pink ball with a long, forked tongue.
There was a gasp from behind her. Kagome winced. She had forgotten about the villagers. "You coward-bastards!" Inuyasha screamed at them. "Don't just stand there! Do something!"
Something knocked against Kagome's head. She looked up and almost vomited as the centipede's lifeless arm floated by, reattaching itself to its host's ripped shoulder. Terrified, Kagome watched as the centipede regenerated her other missing arms, all the while growing longer and taller, the human-looking skin stretching until finally, with a sickening tear, it ripped from her centipede-skin completely. Kagome would have thrown up if her stomach muscles had had enough space to contract. If it hadn't been hideous before, it was now, with bulging eyes and a mouth much too wide for any living creature.
"Yes," it moaned as if in ecstasy. "More power. More!"
The body surrounding Kagome and Inuyasha tightened its grip on the tree. Kagome cried out in pain. She couldn't breathe! She was going to die, crushed to a tree by a bug! Oh God . . .
An instant later the force loosened. Kagome gasped for air, aware of a warm hand snaking its way to her side to push up against the hard centipede shell. Inuyasha? Was . . . was he pushing it away from her with just one hand?
"Oi," he said softly. She looked up at him. He was watching her intently. "Can you pull this out?"
Kagome looked at the arrow embedded in his chest. Fifty years, and no decay? Fifty years, and he was still alive? The tree grew around him, for God's sake!
"Oi! Yes or no, girl?"
Kagome swallowed. What other choice did she have? Grunting, she tried to maneuver her arm out of the vice-like grip of the demon. Inuyasha assisted her by shoving off the pressure of the tail in the right places. It took a minute or two, but finally she had one arm free, fresh and tingly after the fierce hold it had just escaped. Squirming uncomfortably, she reached for the arrow.
"No!" A cry from behind made her pause. She couldn't turn her head, but she knew it was Kaede. "You mustn't! The arrow contains the spell! You mustn't set him free or he'll—"
"And just what do you suggest, you old crone?" Inuyasha barked, sounding almost comically like a dog. "Once that stupid belly-crawler digests the Jewel none of us will be able to stop her! Do you want to die in this fucking grove with me?" He turned to glare down at Kagome, who hadn't moved since Kaede had called out. "Well? Do you want to die pinned to some filthy hanyou?"
Kagome's eyes narrowed. "No!" she screamed. "No, I do not want to die pinned to some half-dog thing in some Somalia-like ancient Japan!" She reached for the arrow. "Live again, Inuyasha!"
It was warm beneath her fingertips, the soft wood throbbing under her palm as if to a steady heartbeat; Inuyasha's, she realized. As her finger closed around it all sense of time seemed to falter for a moment. She breathed freely, suddenly uninhibited by the youkai's tight embrace, and looked up at the arrow in surprise. It was glowing a soft, shimmering pink, and everything around it was lost in its awesome beauty. Shaking her head to clear it, Kagome forced herself to return to the present, whenever that was. She grimaced and pulled, but it didn't budge. Something told her to squeeze, so she did, and gasped as her hand closed in on itself, the arrow vanishing from beneath it. She gasped again as an intense cold seemed to gather within her, spreading throughout her entire body. An instant later Inuyasha's suddenly warm, vibrant chest burned the chill away. Behind her, the villagers gasped. Inuyasha was laughing. Kagome could feel the rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek. He was laughing, and he was tensing his muscles as if testing them. As if he were preparing to spring. Slowly, a deep, slow chuckle began to rise from his chest.
"Hn hn hn hnnn . . . "
The spell was slipping away; the cold bindings of Kikyo's betrayal unraveled themselves from his limbs, his joints, his heart. The spell was leaving him, and as it slid away he felt his enormous strength take its rightful place. "Ha ha ha ha HA!" He barked gleefully. One tense, just one simple tense and he was free, free of the spell and the damn disgusting tree and the centipede. He was free from all of them! He landed on his own four feet—feet he hadn't settling on in decades!—and spun to face the stunned low-class demon before him. Behind him he heard the human girl hit the ground and roll over, gasping for breath after his escape. He grinned as the scent of fear wafted over from the villagers, accompanied by a dozen frenzied heartbeats. They should be afraid. They should all be very, very afraid.
"You . . . " the centipede growled, nauseating face contorting in rage. "You are nothing but a child!"
"Old enough for you, old hag!" Inuyasha cackled. He curled and launched himself from the ground effortlessly, twenty feet and more, giggling madly at the rush, the speed, the freedom! The bug-demon leapt too, but too sluggish—way too slow for a taiyoukai's son!—and Inuyasha maneuvered about it easily, twisting smoothly in the fluid air. This was second-nature to him, and he proved it. "Try this on for size, you dirt-sucker! Sankon Tessou!"
One crack of his knuckles. One tense of his hand. One flick of his muscles. He landed smoothly on his four natural feet, watching the pathetic centipede fall to pieces around him. Everything was quiet. The humans were awed. Inuyasha grinned, his fangs plainly visible in the glowing dark. They were too stunned by his awesome power to move. Who was the filthy half-demon now?
Something stirred to his left. It was gone a split-second later, crushed by a clawed foot. The youkai. It was still alive. But not for long. Inuyasha's grin widened. All he had to do was sniff it out, and it was his. He lifted his nose to the air and sniffed once, twice, catching the scent immediately. He grinned as the stench of magic filled his lungs. Finally . . .
Kagome was stunned. One swipe . . . just one swipe and the demon was in pieces . . .
The boy—the demon, she corrected herself—looked no more than seventeen, and yet he had decimated a huge youkai that had been terrorizing an entire village with just a single swipe . . .
"The Jewel! Girl, can you see a glowing light anywhere?"
Kagome looked up. The old woman was yelling at her, pointing madly at the scattered scraps of bloody flesh littering the silent grove. A torn centipede leg next to Kagome jerked suddenly, and she jumped back with a screech, her heart beating madly. There was no way it could still be alive!
"The Jewel!" Kaede bellowed. "As long as its flesh envelops the Jewel it cannot die!"
"What?" Kagome shrieked. How was that even possible?
"Just get the Jewel, you foolish girl!"
Kagome looked up. All around her the centipede's entrails were pulsing with a steady rhythmic heartbeat. It quickened as she watched. She tore her eyes away and scanned the ground hurriedly. Glowing light? She couldn't see any glowing—
She gulped. Now she could. It was coming from a dark, oozing lump of centipede hide at Inuyasha's bare, bloody feet. The demon-boy himself seemed not to notice; his nose was high in the air, as if sniffing for some sort of scent, hands posed in a curled talon-like position in front of his chest.
"Do you see anything?" Kaede wanted to know. Kagome felt a flash of anger. The old woman wouldn't even come out from behind her precious hilltop to help look!
"Yes," she replied huffily, "but—"
"Don't sit around then, child! Get it before Inuyasha does!"
"But he already . . . " Kagome's voice trailed off as Inuyasha stepped away from the light, his nose still twitching madly. He looked confused.
"Dammit!" he cursed suddenly, taking another step back. "The scent is everywhere! How can it be infused in all the pieces? Where's the one with the goddamn Jewel?"
Kagome watched him in silent confusion. Couldn't he see it? Couldn't the villagers see it? It was so obvious, a bloody scrap of the very essence of disgusting glowing a dirty pink on the dark, bloody ground only a few feet from Inuyasha. And yet, the villagers were scanning the soiled ground between them like there was nothing there. What was going on?
Inuyasha sank back to all fours and began to sniff the ground furiously, whatever trail he had picked up leading him further and further away from the light. He was growling in frustration, his brows knitted angrily—and he was moving away from her! Kagome pulled herself to her knees. If she was going to get it, this was as good an opportunity as any.
She crawled forward slowly, wincing as her hands slipped in pools of thick blackish blood. She moved as quietly as she could, trying not to attract Inuyasha's attention. He didn't seem to care. It took a little willpower to force her fingers into the disgusting ooze and actually extract the Jewel, but she gritted her teeth and did it anyway, wincing as some creamy white fatty-looking ick stuck beneath her fingernails.
Immediately she was hit by a wave of nausea as the stench of a decaying body flooded her nostrils. Behind her the villagers groaned in unison, and up ahead Inuyasha actually fell over, clawing at his nose like a rabid dog and howling obscenities furiously. He cupped a hand to his mouth and turned around to glare at her, pupils dilated to two thin slits.
"You!" he snarled, fangs bared menacingly. Kagome froze. Oh crap . . .
"Run, girl!" Kaede screamed from behind her. "He wants the Jewel!"
Kagome couldn't move. It was as if Inuyasha were pinning her there with a mere glare. She could only watch helplessly as he stood again, removing his hand from his mouth to flex threateningly. "Hand it over, girl," he growled, his voice so much like a dog it scared Kagome. "Unless you'd like to feel the caress of my claws?" He cracked his knuckles slowly, one by one.
Kagome looked at the Jewel, back at Inuyasha, back to Kaede, and back to Inuyasha again. "But . . . but why? What does it do?" It didn't look like much; just a tiny pink glass ball that fit in the palm of her hand. What was so important about it?
"You mustn't give it to him!" Kaede bellowed from behind her. "That Jewel gives power to demons!"
"Exactly!" Inuyasha barked. "And so you can see the stupidity of allowing a mortal to possess it. Hand it over, ningen! Now!" He curled his fingers, scarlet-stained claws now clearly evident in the glowing moon.
"No!" Kagome yelled back, instinctively holding the tiny ball close to her chest. She didn't understand exactly why, but something told her that to let Inuyasha have it would mean very, very bad things. Inuyasha, however, didn't seem to see it that way.
"Look, girl," he growled, lowering his head to glare up at her through tangled white, blood-spattered bangs, "I'll make this simple for you; hand over the Jewel, or die!"
He launched himself from the ground so suddenly Kagome didn't have time to blink. A sharp pain erupted in her side, just above where the Shikon no Tama had been ripped from her body. Kagome screamed and fell over, clutching her side and the Jewel tightly. How . . . how had he moved so fast?
He was laughing again. Wincing in pain, Kagome looked up to see him cackling almost maniacally to himself, crouched down on all fours like an animal. He met her eyes, grinning widely, and looked back to his claws, picking calmly at her blood caught beneath them. "Next time," he said breezily, "I will slice you in half." Kagome couldn't breathe.
Inuyasha chuckled to himself as he flicked another dewdrop of blood from his paw. This was great. This was wonderful. He had complete control here, absolute power over these pathetic mortals. And the Shikon no Tama was right in front of him, guarded by nothing more than a mere slip of a girl with more wounds than she was obviously used to. Perhaps he wouldn't kill that girl. Perhaps he would let her alone live, to be tortured and murdered by her own kind when they found out that she had given up the Jewel to the renowned Lord Inuyasha!
"S—stop it," the girl stammered, holding herself tightly. Inuyasha smirked. "Please, stop it. You're powerful enough, don't you see? You don't need more!"
Inuyasha snorted at her pleas, squeezing the loose dirt tightly between his claws. Perhaps he would enjoy killing her after all. "You think this is power?" he sneered, baring his fangs. A hail of arrows from the villagers whistled through the air behind him, and he swatted them down without so much as a backward glance. "This is nothing! With the Jewel I could kill you with a mere glance, instead of toying with you like this!"
"Toying with me?" she demanded angrily, pulling her knees closer to her body. "You want to get more power to kill, and you toy with people? You sick, sick jerk! I'll never give it to you!"
Inuyasha wasn't fazed. He had been called worse by creatures much more powerful than she. "All right, ningen, have it your way!" he laughed. "You can die protecting that Jewel, just as that fucking miko did!"
The girl screamed as he leapt at her, stumbling away just in time. Inuyasha felt his claws swipe through the tough bark of a tree instead of her yielding flesh and growled, flattening his ears against the boom of the fallen tree's crash against the forest floor. He leapt up into the air again, his hunting senses notifying him of the girl's presence, and he grinned when he saw the Shikon no Tama roll freely on the ground, well away from her outstretched hand. "Now you're mine!" he howled gleefully, preparing for the strike as he fell. The girl shrieked and covered her head, but there was nothing else she could do and she knew it. Inuyasha felt his heart thud against his chest in the excitement of the approaching kill.
"Not this time, Inuyasha!"
Something whistled through the air, heading right for him. His ears told him it was hard and awkward in air travel, and he could scent that old woman on it before it looped itself around his head, something sharp pricking painfully on his left ear. What the—
He altered his decent to land on all fours next to the terrified girl's head instead of on top of it. She screamed again and scrambled back against a tree, stupidly putting him between herself and the Jewel. He ignored her to study the object instead. It appeared to be some sort of necklace, dark, cracked beads laced with old claws. He frowned. The old crone hoped to stop him with this? Ha! It wasn't even worth his attention! The girl, however . . .
He turned back to the human huddled against the tree. Or was she? He jumped back, surprised, when she swung her arm unexpectedly, but his acute senses hadn't thought her much of a threat and so couldn't give him enough warning to react in time. The tree branch caught his cheek and cut open a thin line. Inuyasha glared, growling as he smelled his own blood fill the air. The girl glared back, tree branch at the ready, but her eyes slowly widened as she watched the wound heal itself before her very eyes. He wiped away the trickle of blood with the back of his hand and growled deep in his throat. She had no idea what she was up against now!
"You wench!" he roared, lunging for her. She screamed and threw the branch in his face, stumbling to the side. He swiped it away and thoughtlessly changed his course to intercept her, knocking her to the ground easily and jumping over her to skid to a halt some distance away. Oh, how he would enjoy this kill!
"Girl! A subduing spell, hurry!" It was the old one-eyed crone from before. She would be the next to die.
"A what?" the girl gasped, scrambling back to her feet. "I don't know any!"
"Just say a word to subdue him!"
"Like what?"
Inuyasha's barking laugh cut their conversation short. "You subdue me?" he snarled, planting his feet firmly in the dirt. The drying blood from the centipede felt light and cool beneath his skin. "Don't make me laugh!"
He rushed forward in an all-out gallop. Fear rolled from the girl in waves and her heartbeat picked up dramatically, making Inuyasha smile. She was done for now. There was nowhere else she could run.
"Um, uh—"
Just a few more feet . . .
"Uh—"
He readied his claws for the blow.
"Uh—OSUWARI!"
Inuyasha was instantly engulfed by the scratchy scent of strong magic. He yelped at the sudden barrage on his nose, then yelped again as something pulled him down by the neck, yanking a few strands of his long hair out painfully. He hit the ground with the full length of his body, temporarily stunned by the hard earth knocking the wind from his lungs and the stench of the demon blood coating it—and now him as well. What—what in the nine hells . . . ?
"Perfect!" the old woman shouted. Inuyasha growled at the sound of her voice. That witch would pay for this trick with her life!
He tried to shove himself up from the ground, and was stunned when he couldn't. He tried again, this time ordering his individual muscles to work, and was again ignored. A second later the scent of magic disappeared, leaving behind the stench of a completed spell, and he bolted to his feet, yanking the necklace up. His arms were stopped painfully at chin-level, as if by some invisible wall. He growled angrily. "The fuck!" He tried it again, pulling with all his might, but the necklace wouldn't budge. "Dammit!"
"Save your strength, Inuyasha." It was the old woman again. She and a few brave villagers were making their way down to them. "Not even the strength of a taiyoukai's son will lift those beads from your neck now." Inuyasha's ears shot back in rage.
"You lying witch!" he screamed, lunging for the woman. "I'll rip you apart for this humiliation!"
"OSUWARI!"
Again the scent of magic filled the air, and again Inuyasha was yanked painfully down to the ground, temporarily immobilized by the necklace. This time his brain was immobilized as well. Twice? It—it couldn't be . . .
His ears twitched up as footsteps approached. It was the girl; he could smell her and the Jewel she carried. Rage welled up inside him at her scent, so familiar yet so different, and when she got close enough he whipped out a fluid claw to sweep her from her feet. She landed hard on the ground beside him with a muffled, "Oomf!"
"You jerk!" she cried, whapping him upside the head. He growled, and then the magic's scent disappeared and he curled his legs under him to pounce—
"Osuwari!"
"Argh!"
"Don't you 'argh' me, you jerk! You deserved it!"
Inuyasha was breathing heavily, head down and eyes unfocused. This was insane! This wasn't possible! A powerful hanyou like him defeated by a mere necklace? There had to be a way to nullify it, some way to break the spell! Was there a limit on the number of times the magic could be used? What was it? How many could there be?
"Don't bother, Inuyasha." It was that damn crone again, the one with the eye-patch. Inuyasha glared up at her, but stayed silent. Maybe she would let something slip as to how to break the beads.
"That rosary," she continued, "is of a very powerful magic. It can only be lifted by the spell's caster—which would be, in this case, this young girl here—and it is impossibly to destroy, escape, or nullify. It is also eternal. So give up now."
Inuyasha's ears flattened in rage. "You lie, witch!" he spat. Internally he was ecstatic. She had let her guard down—both her and the girl. They were now just out of claw's reach.
The magic's starchy stench faded, as did the force pressing down on his entire body, and he was instantly airborne, claws reaching to rip out the old woman's throat. There was a slight scuffle from his side.
"Osuwari!"
Slam!
:: Translations Used Throughout ::
inu: 'Dog'.
hai: 'Yes'. Very straight-forward.
hanyou: 'Half-demon'. Han means 'half' and you is the first syllable of 'youkai'. Simple enough.
honekui: Literally, 'bone-eating'. Like the sound of this one better.
iie: 'No'. Again, very simple, except for it's pronunciation. Stumped me for months. ; It's 'EEE-yuh'.
Inuyasha no Mori: Literally, 'Inuyasha's Forest'. Mysterious, né?
jiichan: 'Grandpa', as used for his grandchildren usually. 'Jiisan' would be a bit more formal.
Goshinboku: 'The Holy Tree'. Sounds mysterious, né?
mage: Pronounced 'MAH-gay', not like the English 'mage'. The topknot of hair that Japanese men used to wear.
miko: A priestess, in this story one with powers used for good. Hence the pink shine instead of, say, black. ;
né: 'Yes?' 'You think so?' 'Huh?' 'Eh?' Lot's of stuff. I've only used it in this translator thingy so far, though. ;
ningen: 'Human'. I like the sound of this one for some reason.
oneechan: 'Sister'. Not to be confused with 'oniichan', which is 'brother'. Oneechan is pronounced 'oh-NAY-chan' and is usually used from younger to older siblings.
osuwari: 'Sit!' As used for dogs, usually. If I were Inuyasha I wound find this extremely offensive.
ri: Approximately one mile
-san: A suffix meaning 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.' or 'Miss' or 'sir'. Used for people you don't really know.
Shikon no Tama: 'Jewel of Four Souls'. What four souls, you ask? You'll find out later! Um, would that be considered a spoiler? Sorry. ;
yasha: Chinese, actually. Means 'demon'.
youkai: 'Demon'. Used a lot because I like it better than the English word. Am I weird?
zasshu: 'Mutt'. Highly offensive to Inuyasha who, in a sense, is one.
Author's Note:
Hello again! Above my note is a translations thingy, if you haven't already noticed. There'll be one in every chapter for every word I use in that chapter. Kapeesh? Good. I think I got 'em all up there, tell me if I didn't . . . Anywho, I have up through the first manga done with this, so the more Reviews I get—INCLUDING CRITIQUES!—the faster I'll post it. Deal? YAY! -continues to pound Deanna over head with a sock filled with kitty food- Dammit, she won't read OYL4 for me . . . -cries- Oh yeah! And whenever you see semething like this: -- or this: ; it's supposed to be a little face thingy, but they won't save in here for some stupid reason. Gomen! Damn FanFiction . . . -wanders of to grumble-:: PinkFalcon, up late bringing you yet another error-filled work of art. -- ::
Oi, why's this twelve down here? It appears on it's own, honest. And I can't get rid of it. Well, I suppose I could if I used the Document Manager thingy, but where's the fun in that? ; 12