I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi
Losing His Edge
A trickle of blood on InuYasha's forehead was threatening to blind him, the result of a rock splinter that came flying out of nowhere after the oni had crashed his club on the ground. InuYasha wiped at the wound with the back of his hand. He didn't know what he hated more, getting ambushed like this because of his own lack of attention, or having to explain to Kagome why he got cut.
"So you really wanna die, heh, idiot?" He lifted his sword.
The oni, red-skinned and horned, snorted and began to swing. InuYasha crashed his sword onto the ground, and let the kaze-no-kizu go, taking the monster in a flare of red light and resounding boom.
"I must be getting soft," he muttered as he sheathed his sword. "How'd I let such a dumb ass get that close to us?"
Kagome came out of hiding, carrying her daughter Yukika, with Atae trailing behind, a look of awe on the young boy's face.
"You're hurt," she said, letting Yukika down and walking up to him. She dabbed at his forehead with her scarf.
"Looks worse than it is," he said, pulling away. "A splinter or rock chip got me or something. It'll clean up."
Atae walked up to his father. "You killed the oni, Daddy?" he asked. "You can teach me how to do it?"
InuYasha nodded. "You just keep doing your lessons with me and Uncle Sesshoumaru and Aunt Sango, and you'll be able to do it when you're bigger." He rested a large hand on his son's shoulders. "Just remember oni are pretty dumb. But they're big. Every now and then, one of them gets a little lucky, so you can't take'em for granted."
"If he's dead, he wasn't very lucky," Atae observed.
InuYasha sighed, ruffing his son's hair. "Yeah, but he almost was." He looked up at Kagome. "We better find another campsite. Something'll probably smell his blood, and I don't like messing with scavengers." His right ear twitched, and his face grew hard.
Kagome nodded, and Atae, leading his sister, went back towards where they had laid out their bedrolls for the night. She watched them go and turned back to her husband, and rested a hand gently on his chest. "You're really upset, aren't you?"
His arms circled around her. "Damn right I am," he said, clenching her to him. "I should have sensed him way before he surprised us. Maybe I've been living on the mountain too long. I've lost my edge."
"I doubt it," Kagome said, looking up at him. "Maybe it was the fact that we had you pinned down and were tickling you that had something to do with it. Kind of hard to hear anything with little Yukika shrieking like that."
He sighed, and slowly, a wry grin touched his lips. "Maybe. But we really need to be more careful when we're out of our territory. We were lucky this time."
Kagome nodded. "It's just so easy to forget sometimes. Maybe we need to take more trips away from home - the kids need to learn, and I need to remember." She reached up and gave him a quick kiss.
"Keh," he said. "Maybe." Not sure if he was convinced, he let her lead him back to their campsite.
