Forest of Arrows Chapter 1: Marketplace and Meetings, an inuyasha fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi does.

Prologue

She liked to look at the wall shrine and pretend that the bow and the sword were kissing. They curved towards each other yearningly, like faces so close, trapped forever in that moment of catching the other's gaze and holding it. The notion just seemed to fit so well with the story her mother would tell her when she was sick, because it was a long story and she had a hard time sitting still for any amount of time, like most little girls. So, while it didn't happen often, the nights she was sick were a perfect time to listen. There was always a glass of milk, and her mother's dark tresses pulled sleekly back and reflecting little flickers of light from the lamp, or the weight of her elbow where she leaned against the mattress and brushed the flyaway hairs from her daughter's feverish forehead.

Her mother would tell the story of the brave girl and her bow, and the handsome prince and his sword, and the powerful priestess he was betrothed to, and the horrible, evil man who wanted to steal it all away. Her mother would play with her necklace as she spun out her tale, a perfect sphere of clear quartz, dull and riddled with fissures and white cracks, strung on an oddly braided silver chain. She would let her daughter hold it, some nights, and the little girl would pretend it was the powerful Shikon-no-Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls that had burst from the chest of the priestess Midoriko after her terrible battle, and been entrusted to the line of the Inu-no-Taisho and Midoriko's temple for protection.

Once, her mother took down the bow from its wall shrine very gently and laid it in her hands, letting her feel the weight of it. She said it was because the bow didn't have a sense of humor and the sword did, which made no sense to the little girl. She wasn't to play with them, her mother warned, only look; because they were very, very old and had fought a great battle, and so they deserved their rest. But, she would say in a mysterious tone, if ever we should need them, our blood will wake them. And the little girl would gaze with wide, golden eyes at her beautiful, dark-haired mother, and wonder what it would take to wake a sword and a bow.

Chapter 1 – Marketplace Meetings

It was the end of summer, and a warm wind redolent of the sun-baked grassland surrounding the capital city swept through the open air market, fluttering banners and teasing at carefully pinned hairstyles. This was the kind of day that balanced on the keen edge of seasonal change, perfect in the way of nature, offered up in a pleasing blend of warm sunshine and gentle breezes.

Kagome was thankful for the weather. It meant that any money she made today wouldn't have to go towards cooled cups of tea or chilled vegetables in an effort to stave off heat exhaustion. She could wait for the market to close, pack up her remaining goods, and leave the city gates before nightfall, returning to the forest and relying on her own woods-wise skills to provide food, water, and shelter while she traveled homeward. She fully intended to avoid parting with a single coin; they were in too scarce a supply in her family's village to be spent frivolously.

She felt slightly guilty for the luxury of the cream-colored linen awning over her head, but it had been the only stall space left in the open market that met her requirements: a good distance from guard posts and vendors of alcohol, and far away from the stalls of vendors selling high-end items like scrolls, imported dyestuffs, and calligraphy brushes; things that required thoughtful perusal. She didn't want anyone lingering over her wares, or at least not anyone from the high court.

She had tucked herself between a seller of beautiful, simple baskets and another merchant of miscellaneous housewares, a man who apparently bought the possessions of the deceased, judging by the well-loved appearance of some of the small things – chopstick rests, a tea service glazed in an unusual shade of purple and decorated with gleaming olive bamboo leaves. She could see where the rattan wrapping of the teapot handle was darker from years of some lady's small, white hand going through the motions of lifting and pouring.

A bent old woman shuffling up to her stand drew her eye, and she smiled kindly at the sweet, wrinkled face hooded by a soft gray scarf.

"May I serve you, Grandmother?" she asked politely, leaning forward on her low stool. She got a quick, birdlike glance in response, a hint of shiny black eyes among the mass of lines.

"Such a lovely girl," the woman mumbled, as if to herself. Kagome traded an amused glance with the basket weaver on her right. The middle-aged woman was halfway through lashing the rim of a low-sided gathering basket, kneeling on a thin rug spread on the packed earth of the market.

"Ah, bless her years," the basket weaver murmured, her rounded face serene as her roughened fingers flew.

"My granddaughter would appreciate this," said the wizened woman bent over Kagome's wares, and Kagome leaned further out to see what had caught her customer's attention. She watched thin, shaky fingers brush lightly against an ivory bangle that had been unusually carved. Kagome had expected a pattern of sakura blossoms when she had first felt the ridges, but upon later examination it had been cut with a subtly scrolling design of clouds. She smiled. If you looked closely, there was a pair of swallows darting among the lines.

"Ah, one of my favorite pieces," Kagome said happily, and named a price.

The old woman's face saddened, and she admitted to not having quite that much. Perhaps Kagome would be kind to an old woman and accept a lower amount?

Kagome's face, too, fell, and she worriedly confided that she would be in great trouble with her family if she let such a work of art go for so little. But since the woman was obviously appreciative of the item, she could come down on the price a bit. She named another amount.

The grandmother picked up the bracelet, admired it from all angles, and set it down reluctantly, taking a step back. It was such a shame there was not a pair of them. She offered Kagome a new sum, while the basket weaver blithely finished off her new basket.

Moments later, the little bent woman and the girl behind the booth were grinning conspiratorially at each other, as the bracelet was swiftly wrapped in a scrap of cloth and exchanged for a handful of silver and copper coins and a wink from one beady, berry-dark eye.

Kagome tallied up the rest of what she had to sell in her head. All of her goods were small, easily transportable items of relatively light weight; bracelets and necklaces, rings, stamps, small sculptures, curiosities and art scrolls, even a few small decorative lanterns. It wouldn't do to be caught pilfering the local samurai lord's home because you were trying to lift a half-koku statue of Kwannon, after all. She cupped the pouch of money tucked into the fold of her obi and realized that she'd gotten a pretty good return for her efforts, and what she had left wouldn't be too heavy a burden if she had to carry it home.

It was quite a bit later in the afternoon when a man strolled slowly by her booth, wrapped up in a dark brown, deeply hooded cloak over a set of rich crimson robes. She tilted her head to the side as she watched him approach; he reminded her of autumn, with its stealthy advance and rich palette. The concealing cloak was excusable, as the temperature had dropped as the sun lowered, and Kagome, too, was wrapped in her own cloak, a patchwork piece lined with soft brown-gray rabbit furs. A few months ago she would not have owned such a thing, but the myriad patches of gray and green made for excellent camouflage. She could tell by the fluidity of his motions that he was a youkai, though the glimpse of silver hair and golden eyes when he glanced up at her gave away his heritage to those less observant.

He seemed amused by her selection of merchandise, and Kagome held her breath and wondered if he would accuse her of hawking stolen goods (which to an educated observer, they clearly were. Not to mention their small sizes proclaimed her, personally, as the thief. ) However, he dropped his gaze and picked a thick silver ring out of a small jumble of items, held it up for scrutiny, and then dug in his suikan for a money pouch. Kagome was getting ready for another feisty haggle, and looking forward to it, too, but he extracted a whole gold ryou and set it down on the table in front of her with a click, his clawed finger pressing the coin against the wood for a moment as if making sure she saw him set down money.

"No time to bargain, sorry," he said, giving her a rakish grin, and then all but vanished from view. She caught a glimpse of brown and crimson streaking around the corner, then turned back to look at the golden coin she had slapped her own hand over in shock. A whole ryou! She could buy a koku of rice for half the villagers with this! Though how she would get home with a standard year's worth of rice for that many people was a problem…

She was still sitting there in shock when a group of youkai guardsmen came wandering around the corner, sniffing the air as if looking for someone. Their eyes turned almost unerringly in her direction and the four of them approached her table.

Kagome wanted to whimper, but she resisted the urge and instead drew on Kaede's teachings, grabbing control of her power and calming her agitated aura, effectively soothing herself and her panicked scent in the process.

"Miss, have you seen a young man with silver hair pass though here?"

There was no point in lying, and she didn't think he had done anything wrong besides give her way too much money for such a small item. "Yes, sir," she replied meekly. "He bought something..."

The guards exchanged tolerantly amused glances. "Well, keep whatever he gave you, miss. Thanks for your help." The trailed along in the path of the silver-haired youkai, and before they disappeared around the corner, Kagome heard one of them grumble, "Inuyasha-sama sure has a weird sense of humor…"

The look on the basket weaver's matronly face clearly indicated that Kagome was about to get thumped on the back to assist her breathing, unless she recovered on her own.

Inuyasha-sama? The Regent? The ruler of Kyoto and the whole of Japan while the Shogun, his half-brother Sesshoumaru-sama, was waging war against the invading hordes of Mongols and Chinese youkai from the continent? Kagome was at first bemused, then incredulous. Her village and many others were being bled dry by their daimyo while Inuyasha-sama was wrapping himself in cloaks and perusing weekday markets like a farmer's wife? What kind of responsible leadership was that? Had he ignored every message sent by the villagers? Even her own grandfather, the Shrine's venerable priest, hadn't received a response. Kagome had, until recently, chalked it up to the Regent having more important things to do, but this was clearly not the case.

She sighed, and rested her face in her hands for a moment, the solitary ryou tucked safely in her own money pouch and stowed away in her obi once more. It was undoubtedly time to go, since she now must travel to the moneychanger's quarter and trade the ryou into more manageable silver monme pieces. She already had plenty of copper mon. It didn't take Kagome long to repack what was left of her goods into a carrying cloth and tie it around her shoulders under the cloak. She bid the basket weaver goodbye with a small smile, knowing that she'd managed to tuck a silver piece in with the woman's things unobtrusively. She could well identify the pinch of hunger in another's face, and could hardly restrict her philanthropic efforts to just her village. With so many of the men gone from the countryside to the war effort, it would likely be a long and bitter winter for all.

Kagome found her step quickening as she reached the outskirts of the forest, the sun setting to her left in a glorious blaze of orange and pink fire as she headed northeast. She had grown up learning to love and respect the forest that surrounded her village, and all its itinerant spirits. Her father had been instrumental in her education from a very early age, and Kagome could honestly say she couldn't remember a time when she could not bring down a running deer cleanly with a hunting bolt at a hundred paces, or distinguish healing herbs among the bracken, or somewhat reliably locate fresh water. She could set snares for birds, tickle fish out of the shallows of a stream, dig up edible roots and avoid poisonous berries. She could start a fire with wet wood in the middle of a howling snowstorm, without flint if she must.

She reached a point on the forest road where she could no longer be seen from the open highway, and ducked quickly off the track and into the undergrowth. She was thankful that summer had lasted this long, there was no dry, rustling coat of leaves on the forest floor yet to give away her movements. It didn't take her long to backtrack to the campsite she'd made the night before, an unremarkable location to any other traveler due to the lack of a campfire. She had had her cloak, and it was too close to the city to risk being discovered.

With a sigh of relief, she pulled a long, lumpy bundle out of the brush. It held her weapons and the shortened hakama, haori, boots, and thigh-length leather vest that she wore while traveling. It was much safer to look like a dirty young man in hunter's clothes than a sweet-faced girl in a summer kimono. She shook out the fabric and checked for bugs, then quickly stripped bare of the kimono and obi she'd worn into town, rolling them up efficiently and adding them to the goods in her carrying cloth. She pulled on the dark brown pants, knotting them at her waist, then pulled the lighter brown haori over her shoulders, her breasts still bound down with a long length of linen cloth. She hadn't wanted any attention while at the market, and while she hadn't rubbed dirt on her face or in her hair, she had done her best to de-emphasize her figure. She drew on the long leather vest, adding a third shade of mottled brown to her outfit, then wrapped a thin moss-green obi around her waist, cinching the clothes to her body. Her kimono had been a sky blue with yellow peonies scattered across it, but now she was a soft smear of forest colors in the twilight. Her patchwork cloak would complete her disguise.

She pulled on the boots and yanked the laces tight, lashed the loose ends around her thighs, pulled her pants down and pulled the drawstring ends snug around her calves. She'd had to make adjustments to traditional clothing to keep out bugs and forest matter while creeping and crawling through forest and field over the past couple of months, culminating in her current outfit. It was unfortunate that it would attract unwanted attention if she were spotted, because it was very comfortable, but the best she could hope for was being mistaken for a member of the taijiya, the demon slayers. At worst, she'd be recognized as a thief.

There were three items left in her bundle of belongings: her longbow, her quiver of arrows, and her katana. The longbow had been a gift from her father. Most longbows were roughly six feet long, made of laminated bamboo and strung with a pine-pitch coated silk string, a powerful tool of the samurai. Hers had been crafted at five feet, a more manageable size for someone of smaller stature and a predilection for wandering the forest afoot instead of striking down other samurai from horseback. It had been hers for many years now, and the feel of it in her hand again was reassuring.

The katana was simply a sword, a single-edged blade with a graceful curve meant for slicing at an opponent. It had been left at her family's Shrine many years ago by a dying samurai with no family for it to be returned to, so Kagome's father had taught her and her young brother Souta the elements of swordsmanship. It hadn't occurred to Kagome to wonder where he had learned such things until years after he had died, and her mother had simply shook her head and smiled when questioned.

Kagome slung her quiver and bow over her shoulder and secured the strap, shoved the katana through her obi, and hefted her bundle of clothes and stolen items. She flung her cloak over the whole outfit and started off into the twilight gloom of the forest, knowing she had some time before it was too dark to travel, and the urge to escape the oppressive feel of the city at her back nudging her onwards.

She was awake well before the rosy light of dawn could filter through the trees. It only took her moments to stretch the sleep out of her muscles, finger-comb her waist-length black hair free of tangles and twigs, and braid it into submission. She was on the move again in minutes, hunger rumbling in her belly. She was many ri from the highway by now, and it was safe to start a campfire without attracting the attention of other travelers. This was the time of year for merchants to sell their wares and get home before the freezing rains began, heralding the winter and its snowy, imperturbable blanket.

As she walked, she inhaled deeply through her mouth and nose as she'd been taught; searching for that elusive tang of rich greenness that told her a water source was nearby. It didn't take long before her ears caught the distant burble of a stream and thoughts of grilled fish spurred her into a trot. She knew better than to come crashing through the underbrush, though, and as she hurried along the soft footing of the forest floor, hundreds of years of fallen, decayed leaves silencing her steps, she reached out with her power and gently felt around the vicinity for life.

The thrum of the forest itself was a steady green pulse to her senses, and provided a soothing backdrop to her search. Blue-green flickers ahead of her promised a sizeable stream, and fish resting in a deep hole created by a sharp bend and drop in the stream's course. She caught the telltale flash of yellow-gold in the tree branches signaling small birds; a warmer ruddy gold in the distance signified a doe and her nearly grown fawn passing through. There were no predators or youkai in range. The further she stretched herself, the less specific the indications were, once she passed a handful of ri, she could only determine if a source of life was plant, animal, human, or youkai. Much beyond that, and could only detect the contrast of creature versus nature.

Silently, she offered up a blessing for Kaede's patient teachings. Without the help of the older woman, Kagome would never have been able to control the gifts of her spirit. Ostensibly, it had been her reason for leaving home. Shortly after reaching puberty, Kagome's powers had appeared, much to her grandfather's delight and her own dismay. There had been times when this power of detection, now harnessed, had surged out of control, and the very presence of living things had weighed her down like a cart full of stones. She had been so acutely aware of everything from the tiny organisms crawling on every available surface, including her skin, to the overwhelming aura of a visiting youkai lord that she had collapsed in a fit of seizures. She had welcomed the oblivion of unconsciousness, and when she woke three days later to her mother's haggard face, the power had blessedly receded.

The attacks of fluctuating abilities had come and gone sporadically as Kagome aged from fifteen to eighteen. Kaede had been summoned on her sixteenth birthday to help rein in her latest power, a blaze of purification emanating from her skin. It hadn't harmed anyone yet, but there were youkai in their village, and youkai merchants that the townspeople depended on to bring goods they couldn't manufacture themselves, so something had to be done about the Shrine's undisciplined daughter. Kaede had arrived as quickly as possible, riding pillion behind Hojou, the firstborn son of the village's samurai lord. Poor Kaede had looked like she'd rolled directly out of bed at Hojou's request, all rumpled priestess robes and layers of shawl.

The elderly priestess had stayed for two months at the Shrine, teaching Kagome control of her spirit, which behaved in all ways like a wild horse, powerful and fierce and stubbornly resistant to attempts to tame it. With Kaede's persistence, she had managed a semblance of control, and maintained it until just before her eighteenth birthday.

A few weeks before Kagome could officially take her place as her grandfather's successor at the Shrine, the daimyo, or overlord of her town and many others in the area, had traveled through her village on his way to Kyoto. Kagome's spiritual powers had flared wildly, and struck her down in the dirt at his mount's feet. She'd had no warning; one moment her eyes had been drawn to a large, dark blue stone hung around his neck. The next, a vision came to her of it shattering, the daimyo's skin bursting open and revealing a massive, rotting monster of writhing tentacles. As suddenly as the vision appeared, it had retreated, leaving her sprawled in the middle of the road, an expression of abject horror on her face.

She'd reacted by turning into a living torch of purifying fire, her terrified shrieking and spiritual pyrotechnics spooking the horses in the entourage and nearly getting herself trampled in the process. If it hadn't been for Hojou's timely intervention, the daimyo's surprised youkai guards might have struck her down with spears. As it was, the daimyo himself had sneered and recommended the Shrine put a little more dedication into the training of its priestesses, instead of letting them run rampant and uneducated, endangering the people of his domain. Hojou, bless him, had gritted his teeth at the insult, but apologized profusely and dragged her home to her family.

After a very somber visit from Hojou's father, it hadn't taken much for her to convince her grandfather to send her to the Mangetsu Shrine, halfway to Niigata. They had a priestess who could seal away Kagome's powers until she had learned to control them, and would educate her further in her responsibilities to the village, the Shrine, and the kami. They also had an excellent reputation for the healing arts, and with the promise of Kagome returning in a year with the ability to treat most ills that could befall a villager, the unease of her presence would be smoothed over with both the youkai community and the humans who were sure that the daimyo would come back and slaughter them all for her scandalous behavior.

And so Kagome had left home with a few changes of clothes, the robes of a shrine maiden, two week's worth of travel rations (if she supplemented it with game) her longbow, the katana of a dead man, and a year's grace. She'd wanted to leave the katana for Souta, but he'd given her an odd, unfocussed look and told her she would need it. She'd felt a little better about leaving then, knowing that her younger brother had the spiritual gift to foresee trouble.

She'd set out to the northwest, taking a road that wound up through mountainous terrain. In truth, Kagome had no intention of traveling to the Mangetsu Shrine and having her power sealed. Her vision of the daimyo had come with a terrible weight of truth, and she was not about to ignore a gift from the kami, or abandon her village. She would go to Kaede, and beg her for training. She would find some way to manage her power and protect her people, and of all the places she could go, Kaede's home on Mt. Hakurei was the safest due to the powerful barrier that encased the mountain. No youkai, nor humans with evil hearts, could pass through the shield, making it one of the safest places to be if one wished to train in the spiritual arts. The power of the barrier gave even normal people the creeps; so the mountain was mostly uninhabited, save for the monastery at the peak and Kaede's home somewhere on the southern slope. It had taken Hojou a day and a half on horseback to reach Kaede's home and come back, so Kagome had been sure she could find her old teacher well before her food ran out.

A flare of rose-white light on the edge of her senses snapped Kagome out of her reflections. Somewhere in the woods on the other side of the stream was a human traveler, moving quickly. Kagome was already past the bank of the stream, which had proven wider and deeper than her initial perception. Storms had brought an ancient cypress down to span the small river, making a perfect bridge, and Kagome was already a quarter of the way across, lost in her musings. She froze in place as the aura moved closer, indecisive. She could run, but she'd be spotted before she could vanish into the brush. Or, she could continue on her way and hope the other person wished to remain as unremarked-upon as she did.

The decision was ripped out of her hands when the curtain of vines on the other side of the embankment crackled, and a woman in the kimono and apron of a peddler pushed her way through. She was clearly in a bad mood, as she carried a very large item on her back that was caught on the vines and hampering her progress. The woman swore blisteringly, and ripped her burden loose, stumbling to the edge of the stream. Kagome couldn't help herself…she giggled. That got the attention of the other traveler real fast, and the woman righted herself immediately into a fighting stance.

"What do you want?" the woman demanded, clearly not knowing what else to say.

"Sorry," Kagome grinned, "You just looked awful silly struggling through the brush with that thing. It's enormous! Why didn't you take the road instead of hiking through the forest?"

"That's none of your business," the woman snapped, kicking her way through the tangle of branches at her end of the tree bridge.

"You might want to wait, you know," Kagome offered dryly as the woman prepared to step onto the fallen trunk. "There's only room for one at a time." Even from a distance, Kagome could see the woman's eyes narrow. She looked hot, sweaty, and very annoyed.

"Fine. Go back, and let me cross. I'm not in the mood to wait."

"I'm already crossing," Kagome pointed out sweetly. "Get out of my way, and then you can be on yours."

The woman tilted her chin up arrogantly. "You know how to use that katana, little girl?"

Kagome couldn't decide if she was worried or not that she'd been identified as female through her clothes. "Of course. I'm not helpless."

"Very well," the woman replied, shrugging out of her burden's carrying strap. Much to Kagome's surprise, she pulled her own sword out of the bundle on her back. She straightened up, brandishing the blade. "Fight me for the right to cross first!"

Kagome's grin widened. "Come on, then!"

Vocabulary:

Koku: a unit of measure no longer in use (like bushels!) and equivalent to one year's worth of rice for one person, weighing approximately 330 lbs. A masu is enough rice for one person for one day, and weighs roughly 6 oz.

Kwannon: the Japanese name for a Buddhist goddess of mercy.

Ryou: a gold coin, worth 60 monme.

Monme: a silver coin. Here's where I have lots of conflicting info on how many mon or other coins (fun, hiki) make up one monme. For simplicity's sake, let's make it 100 mon.

Mon: a copper coin.

Ri: another archaic unit of measure: equivalent to 2.445 miles.

Taijiya: Youkai exterminator.

Kami: miscellaneous spirits that govern everything from the water in the streams to the animals in the forest and then some. Kami were everywhere, and considered rather capricious, thus the Shinto priests and miko to intervene on the common man's behalf. Think pickle pots and monkey spirits.

A/N: For anyone following 'WnK,' my apologies…I've been distracted. Here's my latest foray into the sea of fanfic.

A few notes:

I'm not inserting gratuitous Japanese…it makes me crazy. 'Hai' and 'gomen' do not cover the myriad levels of politeness necessary in Japan, be it today or eight hundred years ago. I will, however, use Japanese for things usually best left untranslated, like the words "miko," "houshi," and "youkai," although common translations will appear (priestess, monk, demon) because it's awful to repeat youkai, youkai, youkai over and over again. Regarding youkai: they are creatures of nature and magic, and nothing like the 'demons' of Christianity. Not all of them are evil (i.e. kitsune, who prefer being tricky at the expense of humanity). My reluctance to translate also includes attacks, because I gag a little every time I hear "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer." (This is not the fault of Richard Cox; poor guy is only reading a script.) I will be including titles, such as –sama, –dono, –san, and –chan, because they are so helpfully indicative of interpersonal relationships. In English I call my mother 'mom' but my fondness for her is only indicated by tone of voice.

I will include miscellaneous vocabulary words for things that are inherent to Japan, and I will define them for you as much as possible in context so you don't have to skim down to the end of the chapter for a meaning. Because this is an AU of the Inuyasha-verse, I am taking some liberties with the time period (roughly 300 – 500 years BEFORE the Sengoku Jidai), the clothing, the money system, and some of the ethical and traditional values present in feudal Japan. If you see something correctable, by all means suggest it to me, and if it won't throw a monkey wrench in the plot, I'll fix it. For those of you who haven't already, go read Kuro's "Literal Translation Theatre" at ear-tweak dot com, and giggle at the brilliance of "HONORABLE SIT!"