...oh hello.
I dont know what is HAPPENING but it's kind of a problem. I have my entire Earth: Bring it Down Finale outline finished and ready for actual writing...and yet all I can find motivation for is this stupid, stupid story. DAMN MY INUYASHA MUSE. It's probably cuz I'm re-reading the manga and am falling in love with it all over again.
I know things are staying pretty close to canon right now, there's a reason for it. Kohana is not Kagome, and trust me when I say things are gonna be a'CHANGIN. It's also terrifying to go off-book in regards to events so HUSH AND LET ME TAKE IT AT MY OWN PACE.
Anyway...yeah. I'm gonna try to focus on my other stories for now, but knowing my muse, I'll probably update sooner than later. I'm also sorry for any grammar mistakes...it's like midnight here and I've been writing this chapter non-stop for at least four hours. Bleh.
Enjoy, and...
PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter 6: Beyond The Grave
It was a beautiful, sunny day in feudal Japan. It really was too bad that Kohana couldn't take the time to actually enjoy it, but alas, she was too busy chasing down a half-demon that had been stabbed last night and thought that he could just walk it off without any medical care.
Kaede had recommended that Kohana leave well enough alone, but she was determined to make sure Inuyasha was properly recovering. Nobu had always instilled in Kohana the importance of monitoring the healing of serious injuries. It was the most critical step in caring for wounds—it lessened the chance of untreated infection.
And so, Kohana found herself in this increasingly humiliating situation.
"Stop following me!" Inuyasha whined, ducking away from her attempt to surprise-tackle him to the ground. They had been at this for a good hour and the half-demon wasn't even out of breath. Kohana, on the other hand, was dripping in sweat and just about ready to tear his hair out—one stupid strand at a time.
"Inuyasha, you need to have someone look at it, for the love of every fucking god that happens to be listening and is blatantly ignoring my request for help!" Kohana yelled to the sky, kicking at a rock so hard that she felt the pain through her running shoe.
The two stood under a large tree that sported small tiny purple flowers and large green leaves, and if Kohana wasn't so irritated she would have taken some time to admire it.
Inuyasha glared. "I'm fine, ya pervert. Stop trying to get my shirt off!" he snapped, tugging his robe a bit tighter around him and turning away from her. He wasn't even bothering to run; he knew that he could outmaneuver her at any speed.
Kohana huffed. "If you don't let me look at your wound, I'll say the word."
That gave Inuyasha reason for pause. He turned to give her a nasty look over his shoulder, but at least he had stopped walking away. Progress, right?
The boy turned to face her, nonchalantly leaning against the tree's trunk as he did so. At least, it looked nonchalant to the untrained eye. Thanks to ten years of deciphering Kagome's very fickle moods and Nobu's relentless observation training, Kohana knew that it was just a façade. Inuyasha was anything but relaxed.
He was waiting to see how she would proceed. The ball was in her court.
Kohana folded her legs underneath her so that she was sitting in the shade. Her skin was gross and clammy from the quickly cooling sweat coating her skin. For a moment she pitied Inuyasha; his nose must be picking up on all the gross smells that come from a human sweating in the hot sun.
"I know you probably won't believe me when I say that I don't want to use the word on you, but honestly I don't," Kohana admitted, and it was true. She hated the idea of—when not in the context of necessity or a fair fight—physically forcing someone to the ground at her feet.
The beads placed Inuyasha in a very sensitive position, and Kohana knew that unless she was careful, she could fall into a pattern of abusing that power. If she got into the habit of using it when Inuyasha wasn't doing what she wanted, Inuyasha would quickly learn to respect her, sure, but it would be based on the power of a magical artifact and not Kohana's own merit.
The girl found herself speaking again, pulling her knees up close to her chest.
"When I was eight years old I got picked on by a boy at school. Whenever he felt like I wasn't paying enough attention to him, he held me down and pushed my face into the dirt. I tried to stay on his good side, at first. When that didn't do anything, I fought back with everything I had. It always ended the same way," she explained.
The memories of those horrible first months in school were so vivid in her mind, even after all the years that had passed since then. For a second, she was transported back to those days on the playground, back to the moments when her face was shoved down so hard that the dirt was forced into her mouth—
"I don't ever want to be that boy," Kohana said into the silence.
She wasn't sure why she was telling Inuyasha this. It would be easy to shrug it off and say that it didn't matter what she told him, because he didn't care…but then she would be lying. Last night, Inuyasha gave her his robe and shielded her body from Yura's purple fire.
He had used her name.
Kohana glanced up to see that Inuyasha wasn't looking at her. He was gazing out at the valley as if nothing in the world bothered him. Just as she was about to give up and leave, the half-demon crouched in front of her and yanked aside the collar of his robe to reveal his shoulder.
There was nothing. Not a single blemish to show where the blade had passed through his body. Nothing but smooth skin where an ugly wound should have been.
"Oh, you fucking asshole," Kohana breathed, reaching forward to confirm the lack of injury, so in awe that she didn't notice Inuyasha's harsh intake of breath at the touch of her fingers.
"What?" Inuyasha barked as he moved away from her and fixed his robe. Kohana gaped at him for a moment before sitting back on her heels.
"You're able to heal from a stab wound in one night! Your senses are better than a human's, you can run and jump faster than anything I've ever seen, and you're able to fight with your claws! I would give anything to be like that," Kohana exclaimed, getting to her feet and giving her legs a quick shake to loosen the muscles.
For the briefest of moments, Inuyasha's lips twitched. It was as if he was fighting a smile. But then the scowl was back.
"You're fucking weird," he scoffed, turning up his nose at her. Kohana rolled her eyes at that—like he was so normal.
Suddenly, a high-pitched voice pierced the air, too thin and reedy to be human.
"Master Inuyasha!"
Kohana looked around, trying to spot the enemy demon. She frowned at Inuyasha, who didn't seem alarmed at all. The half-demon grimaced before smacking his neck. What in the hell was he swatting at?
His lack of social skills, probably.
Kohana snorted, her eyes catching sight of a small coin-sized speck falling to the ground. Wait, was that a bug? Inuyasha knelt to examine it and his golden eyes shone with reluctant recognition.
"Not you again!" Inuyasha groaned, and made to crush the creature with a clenched fist. But it jumped out of the way in time, right onto Kohana's hand.
The creature was a flea, albeit a much larger flea than those in her world, and one that was dressed in a tiny outfit no less. In one of his six hands there was a toothpick-sized walking stick.
The flea looked up at her, and Kohana was sorely torn between shrieking and flicking the creature off of her—it was a talking flea.
"My most humble greetings, child! I am Myoga, flea-demon and friend to Inuyasha's late father, former Lord of the West. You have my thanks for releasing Inuyasha from his cursed sleep!" the flea greeted cordially, and Kohana couldn't help the shocked laugh that escaped her.
Inuyasha snarled. "Grateful because it means you can follow me around and annoy the hell out of me!"
Myoga's eyes bulged. "Annoy you? Master Inuyasha, as I have always said, my presence is necessary for a son of the great Inu no Taisho to thrive! I served your father for three hundred years!"
"Why the fuck aren't you clinging to Sesshomaru, then? He's daiyoukai, the heir, whatever the fuck you want to call it," Inuyasha grumbled, and Myoga bristled in response.
"Believe me, I have tried speaking to Lord Sesshomaru, but you both have both made it clear that you don't need assistance of any kind! Lord Taisho would have laughed to see how similar his sons have become! Yourmother, may her soul rest in peace, always said—"
Inuyasha's expression darkened, and in an instant he had Myoga between his forefinger and thumb. A deep rumbling resounded from his chest, a sound more genuinely threatening than anything Kohana had heard him produce so far. Stone-faced, he brought the flea-demon up so they were eye-to-eye. Kohana had so much new information swirling around her head that all she could do was stare.
Inuyasha's father had been the demon Lord of the West. Inuyasha was a half-demon, so that meant that his mother had been human.
Inuyasha bared his teeth at the flea before dropping him to the ground, careful to step on him as he stormed off. Kohana watched his retreating back as he stalked down the path, unable to do more than gawk at the interaction she had just witnessed.
Myoga recovered within a few seconds, popping back into his usual form with a grunt of exertion.
"Well, that went about as well as I anticipated," he said brightly, brushing some dust off of his robe. Kohana knelt down to better see the flea.
"How long have you known him?" Kohana asked, extending a hand so that Myoga could hop onto it. She didn't want to stay crouched on the ground all day, and having the flea-demon in her hand made it easier to see him.
Myoga eagerly climbed into her offered hand, his body tiredly slumping against her palm. It made her wonder how far he had traveled to find Inuyasha.
"Since he was born!" he cried, indignantly throwing up his hands.
"So you knew his mother?" Kohana asked as she began the trek down the hill and towards the village. In the far distance, near Kaede's hut, she spotted the distinctive gleam of Inuyasha's silver hair.
Myoga nodded gravely. "I helped Izayoi escape when Lord Taisho fell in battle, the night of Master Inuyasha's birth. I stayed with them for ten years, helping Izayoi with various matters. I would have remained longer, but I was needed elsewhere," the flea explained as Kohana made her way back to the village.
"When did she die, if I may ask?" Kohana asked. Inuyasha clearly felt very strongly about his mother, and his disdain for humans made her a bit uneasy about the whole thing. Did he hate his mother? Was that why the mere mention of her made him so visibly upset?
Myoga sighed, his expression distant and sad. It was odd to see such a desolate expression on a flea's face—or any expression, for that matter.
"A century and a half ago. Master Inuyasha was fifty years old when it happened, if my memory serves me correctly. He's been on his own ever since."
That would mean…holy shit, that Inuyasha was one hundred and fifty years old. Technically it was two hundred, if one counted the fifty years spent on the tree, but Kohana wasn't sure that counted—according to Kaede, the spell Kikyo used had placed a stasis on Inuyasha's body, preventing him from aging or being affected by the elements.
"How?" Kohana breathed, shocked to her core.
"The same way all humans die if allowed to live out their lives in peace; old age. Master Inuyasha's only solace in a world that shuns half-breeds was his mother. He loved her, I believe, more than he has loved anything—or anyone—since. Witnessing her gradual descent into death is most likely the reason that his own partial humanity frightens him as much as it does. But the truth of it is that Time claims all living things, eventually. Demons in particular are loath to accept it but it remains true all the same."
No wonder Inuyasha wants to become a full demon, Kohana mused. He doesn't want to have to be constantly reminded of the human side of him, the side that took his mother away so soon.
But if that was the reason, how on earth did he fall in love with Kikyo?
She paused on the slope of a hill, quickly running her free hand through her hair in an attempt to calm her thoughts. Myoga peered around her fingers, seemingly concerned by her agitation.
"Sorry, it's just a lot to take in," Kohana assured him. "Also, Inuyasha would probably kill us both if he knew we were talking about this."
"Most certainly."
"He already has enough reason to hate my guts, what's one more?" Kohana joked halfheartedly.
Myoga hummed thoughtfully. "Ah yes, the reincarnation dilemma. I'll admit, I was very much surprised to find you still alive, child. Meaning…it must be very difficult for Inuyasha to collaborate with a girl who contains the reincarnated soul of the priestess who cursed him for fifty years. I do wonder why he didn't kill you the moment you released him."
A dark, humorless laugh clawed its way out of Kohana's throat.
"I have no idea," she lied smoothly before resuming her walk to the village.
Myoga chuckled. "Now, if Lord Sesshomaru was in Master Inuyasha's position, you can be certain that nothing would be left of you but a pile of bones..."
Kohana latched on the subject of Inuyasha's brother—half-brother, Myoga quickly corrected—in a desperate attempt to dislodge the bitterness from her stomach.
The worst part? She had no idea if the bitterness came from Kikyo's soul residing within her or if it came from Kohana herself, from the very plausible reality that her status as Kikyo's reincarnation could be the only reason she was being kept alive.
"And so that is why I have come. There are rumors of one who wishes to seek out and desecrate your father's tomb," Myoga declared.
Kohana looked to Inuyasha the moment the flea-demon finished his tale. He was scowling, as usual, but there was a distinct chilliness in his gaze that wasn't normally present. Kaede observed calmly as she stoked the cooking fire into a more steady heat-source. Night had fallen and the firelight cast heavy shadows on the walls of the hut.
Finally, Inuyasha shrugged. "Ain't my problem."
Myoga sputtered. "M-Master Inuyasha!"
"I've got better things to do than sit and cry about someone walking into a tomb. My old man's dead, there's nothin' else to it."
With that, the half-demon got up and exited the hut, so forcefully that the reed mat serving as a door slapped against the wall. Kaede and Myoga both sighed.
"I have heard of this demon, this Inu no Taisho," the old priestess quietly revealed. "He ruled over the West with a fair hand, or so legend says."
Myoga nodded eagerly. "My Lord Taisho was the greatest demon lord this world has ever known!"
Kohana hesitantly raised a hand. "I hate to agree with Inuyasha, because he's an ass, but he does have a good point. We have more important things to do than scare away some bandits hoping to loot a tomb."
Myoga fidgeted, his eyes darting from side to side. "It's more complicated than that, in truth. The tomb…it's not exactly…here."
Kohana frowned. "Here?"
"Yes, that's what I said," Myoga scolded. "Meaning that it's not on this plane of existence. The only way to access the tomb is through Master Inuyasha. The portal is a…magical item of sorts…one that I helped to insert when he was just a few days old, as his father requested before his death. Inuyasha doesn't know of it, which is why I had to come. To warn him!"
"Warn him of what?" Kohana demanded, growing more and more suspicious by the second. Myoga looked pretty jumpy, which could be passed off as a flea habit—they were in near-constant danger of being stepped on or crushed—but she had a horrible feeling it was more than that.
"What I mean to say is…I forgot to mention that the person looking for the tomb isn't exactly a bandit. He's…family."
Kohana stared at him for a moment before it clicked.
"Fuck!" she yelled, scrambling to her feet. "Sesshomaru is coming? The one who's a full-blooded demon and heir to the Western Lands? The one who also hates Inuyasha? Is that the name you forgot to fucking mention?"
The uncomfortable silence was answer enough. Cheeks red with fury as well as the heat of the fire, Kohana leaned down to grab her empty bowl and chuck it at Myoga. She didn't even bother waiting to see if her aim was any good, instead focusing on grabbing her quiver and bow as she ran outside to find Inuyasha.
The village was quiet, as most were getting ready for bed, and so even though she was spitting mad Kohana tried to be as quiet as she searched. After half an hour or so she spotted a few large, fresh footprints in the soft dirt road leading to the southern fields—the farthest away from the village. Groaning, Kohana steeled herself and began to jog in that direction. The nearly full moon shed plenty of light for Kohana to see where she was going, and for that she thanked the gods.
"I mean, do I wish you had helped me earlier when I was trying to help Inuyasha check his wound? Yeah, I really do, but I suppose you're making up for it," Kohana muttered as she reached the top of the hill.
The village was quickly fading into the distance, and disappeared completely when she began jogging down the other side of the slope. Stretched out before her were miles of farming fields and small thickets of trees, made black and white by the light of the moon. Kohana looked around, wishing she had a dog whistle or something. Should she call out? Was he even nearby? Had those been some random farmer's footprints she had followed?
"Well, shit," Kohana admitted, and she must have been pretty loud because something shifted in her periphery. She quickly turned to see a familiar half-demon perched in one of the trees farther down the hill. He had heard her, even though he was at least half a mile away.
That settled it; she wanted his ears. Not literally, but damn if she wasn't insanely jealous of his enhanced senses.
Inuyasha noiselessly dropped down to meet her as she approached. His brow creased at her frantic expression.
"What's up with you?" he warily asked.
Kohana took a step closer. "Myoga told me who—"
Apparently the gods were cashing in on their 'let's be nice to Kohana' spree, because at that moment a shuddering groan of energy ripped through the air. It caused Kohana's skin to tingle and her heart to begin racing in preparation to hide away from something big.
Kohana wasn't sure what prompted her movement, but her hand immediately found Inuyasha's arm. She dropped to the ground and dragged him with her. He didn't make a sound as she did so, which was odd for him. Instead, he fell down with her, as if he had been planning on hiding as well. Kohana shared a glance with him and it was silently communicated that she wasn't the only one who had felt the energy.
Something was coming.
Kohana's chest heaved as she sucked in panicked breaths. She had just finished a terrifying demon encounter—she didn't want to jump headfirst into another one!
"Inuyasha, I can't—" she began, only to be cut off by Inuyasha's hand firmly clamping over her mouth.
Iinstinctively, Kohana struggled, causing Inuyasha to growled at her. They were so close to each other that the sound vibrated through her, combating against the foreign energy as well as her adrenaline-induced trembling. Kohana shuddered, trying to fight the urge to bite down on Inuyasha's hand. She just wanted to run away and get home and curl up into Nobu's arms because this energy couldnt reach her there.
Inuyasha hunched down even further, his upper body pressed against her back. The growls continued, though they were much gentler, and in the back of her mind she wondered if he was trying to console her. Was this how dog-demons gave comfort?
After what felt like hours the dark energy faded from the air. Inuyasha was the first to pop up and take a look around. He removed himself from her person so quickly that there was no doubt that he hated touching her, and Kohana could say with some certainty that the feeling was mutual.
The panicked feeling was gone, shedding light onto the fact that Kohana had completely lost control of herself. So much for being Nobu's best student—give her too many demons to handle and she just crumbled! How could she be of any help on this journey to find Jewel shards if she shook like a leaf every time an evil presence showed up?
Kohana blushed with embarrassment at the thought and firmly shook her head. No, she wouldn't do that. She would stand up right now and tell Inuyasha about Sesshomaru because she refused to be the pathetic damsel!
She stood and determinedly faced Inuyasha, only to find that the half-demon was standing perfectly still, staring intently up at the sky. His profile was almost aristocratic in the moonlight; a term that was definitely not applied to Inuyasha on a daily basis, if ever.
Kohana frowned as she followed his line of sight.
A carriage was drifting across the sky. It didn't have horses or oxen pulling it, but an imp like creature carrying a scythe floated a few feet in front of the structure and appeared to be guiding it. In lieu of a door there were strips of expensive cloth. As Kohana watched, a strong breeze blew them out of the way and revealed the occupant.
"It's a woman," Kohana whispered to herself, squinting to better see the person sitting inside the carriage. She was too far away to see any details of the woman's face, but the robes were discernible—richly colored and made of fine fabric. A demon noble of some sort, maybe? The woman appeared to be human, but couldn't demons take on human forms?
"Mother?" Inuyasha breathed, effectively ending Kohana's pondering because what the hell did he just say?
At the sound of Inuyasha's voice the powerful energy returned with a vengeance, filling Kohana's ears and vibrating through every bone in her body. This time she braced herself against it instead of giving in to the desire to drop to the ground.
The energy darkened the clouds and parted them, allowing the moon's light to shine on an enormous demonic hand as it reached down from the heavens and closed its clawed fingers around the carriage.