Authors Notes:
Someone in this chapter has a potty mouth! Tain't me! Teehee! For those who might be wondering, the chapter title is "Where the Angels Fear" or as close an approximation as the online translator could give me. Yes, I know I've never translated a chapter title before. I may never do it again. ::grin::Warning:
Lots of information ahead. By this, I mean explanations of stuff from the Inuyasha plot that Inuyasha fans will already know, just put into context for this fanfic. Also, maybe some spoilers for some people, depending on how far into the series they are.Thankies:
Pleiades-sama: Whee!! ::huggles:: Fuuzaki-chan: Bah, baka grown up type people, ne? Tensei-chan: Bah, baka male type people, ne? ::hands Tensei-chan THE sledgehammer:: Satan's Mistress: Bah, baka… uh… ::snuggles Inuyasha::Disclaimers:
::sigh:: Inuyasha and his gumi don't belong to me, precisely. Neither does Aya. Inuken does, though! He's mine! So is Mineko, and Toushiko, and Rei and Akseh and all those other OCs I dun wanna name right now.Âmes Qui Dorment
Chapitre Huit - Où les Anges Craignent
Rin found Jaken's body at the edge of the forest three days after his disappearance. Though Sesshoumaru-sama's warning had her braced for his vanishing, it had not readied her for such a blatantly cruel message. Jaken's head lay two feet from his body, his arms three feet in separate directions, and one leg was missing completely. Rin sobbed, then found a bush in which to be sick.
Once her stomach was emptied, Rin went about the task of collecting Jaken's parts for burial. She was not at all certain he would have done the same for her, but after all, she was human while he had been youkai. Not many youkai cared about humans, and humans, for the most part, cared little about youkai. Rin found, however, that in the end the distinction between the two had little meaning. Jaken had been something of a companion, so she honored his memory as she would that of a decent human being. She buried him at the edge of her clearing, certain that there his body would not be disturbed. Only with this done could Rin go on to pay her respects elsewhere.
Orange sunlight, borne of late evening, flowed in streamlets through holes in the forest's dark foliage. At the Northern-most edge of her magic-seeming clearing stood a strange statue, and to this Rin carried a small plate of bread and fruits. At first sighting the statue seemed only a large, man-sized crystal of unknown origin, grey like shadow and dim even when lighted by the sun. As she approached closer, though, Rin was able to see the figure inside the crystal. She kneeled before this odd icon, placing her offering on the ground. Her eyes lifted to meet the ones within the crystal prison, eyes golden and slitted, that had only rarely shown kindness.
"Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Rin." His form coalesced beside his prison, a ghost-body to replace the one lost. "Your offering is pointless." He made the same statement each time, to which she made the same reply.
"If my attention keeps you in this world, then perhaps one day other people will know and remember you, and you will become a kami. Then you will be able to go anywhere and be no longer confined to this place." Rin grinned. "Besides, it gives me something to do."
"If it pleases you." Translation: I can't stop you, so you might as well proceed.
Rin sighed, moving her gaze from the transparent form of Sesshoumaru to the dim version resting inside the crystal. Thirteen years trapped had not marred the perfect youkai beauty of Rin's surrogate father, and she would be inclined to believe his body still lived if not for the spirit that haunted the forest near his resting place. Sesshoumaru's soul had left his mortal form but could not travel far from it, and so he remained, as did Rin, and together they kept this forest in relative peace. Through it all, however, Rin knew that other thoughts plagued Sesshoumaru.
"Tenseiga still calls?" She asked the question tentatively, never knowing if he would feel inclined to answer or merely fade away if he did not feel so inclined. The subject of Tenseiga could be and often was a touchy one; Sesshoumaru never liked to admit how much the sword meant to him.
"Hai." He moved around the edge of his body's crystal prison, ghostly eyes trained on the fortress far in the mountains. "It dislikes being so far from its master."
"As its master dislikes being so far from his sword?"
Sesshoumaru did not reply to that, merely narrowed his eyes in the direction of his people's home. Rin fidgeted; she did not have the sensing ability of a youkai or a miko. She could not smell or sense the things Sesshoumaru did, she could only wait for his decision to inform her. She knew from his actions and sparse words of late that something on the horizon had changed. Somewhere there were people or things that made a difference in the situation but Sesshoumaru had yet to tell her who or where or what. He would have to eventually, she thought. How else could she move to intercept the person or thing?
"I have had contact with the miko."
Rin started. What? The miko?
"Sesshoumaru-sama, which miko do you mean? There are many, and I have seen none . . . ." Of course he could not mean a living miko, because he could not leave the clearing and no living being other than Rin could enter. That meant a miko who had crossed, and there could be only one he would have any reason to converse with. "W-What purpose could you have in speaking with that one?"
"She sees much from her place on the other side. Not all of it she will share, but she has agreed to reveal more when the time comes." Sesshoumaru looked down on her, mask-like face diaphanous with the approach of night, and Rin felt the advance of more words with more meaning than she had ever heard him speak. "There is much happening she will not tell, but this much she did say, that our enemies are stranger than even we can imagine." He paused again, and Rin could almost conceive worry in his translucent expression. "There are others coming who can help in defeating the enemies. You do not have to remain if you do not wish to, Rin."
Rin wondered at his words. Did he truly suppose she would leave him now, when the course of events finally was changing? She smiled, batting back tears with her eyelids.
"Baka." She dared to say it only because she knew, in some way, he worried for her. "You didn't leave me to death by wolves, nor will I leave you to suffer this spirit-state alone. If you go after vengeance for your current condition, I will follow. If you seek only the destruction of those who have usurped your land and position, then I seek that as well. I seek what you seek, Sesshoumaru-sama, and desire what you desire. It has been this way since I was a girl, and will be this way until I am a spirit." She decided it would, for the moment, be prudent to leave out her hope that her spirit always be near his.
Sesshoumaru's silence as he watched her made Rin turn her gaze downward. Without fail he could make her feel shame for the most trivial of things, or for her innermost feelings. Rin doubted this was purposeful; Sesshoumaru merely did not understand the nuances of human emotion. Could human emotion really be so far removed from youkai emotion?
"As you wish," he finally said, his only concession to her frailer human feelings. Could it be her imagination, or did a smile play on his ethereal lips?
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
As the group moved through the trees, Miroku watched the sky for signs. The full moon was three nights past. Inuken would need to remember that. Miroku scolded himself for not thinking sooner about this particular complication. Damn, he wished he'd been paying more attention, but what could have made him think to? Inuken hadn't shown any marks of discomfort, nor of any impending change until the howl that brought them all out to check on him. The boy hadn't spoken of any changes, nor of feeling strange. Why, then—
"Miroku-san, what's happening?" Aya tugged at his sleeve, pulling Miroku's attention away from his internal thoughts and back to the present. He looked down at the red-rimmed, watery pair of violet eyes and sighed. Gesturing for them to stop, Miroku turned fully to Aya.
"I'll tell you when Inuken wakes. I'd prefer to tell it all at once, and I'm hoping he will be coherent."
"Will he? Look at him!" Aya gestured to where Sango and Mineko worked to tie Inuken to a tree, panic lighting the red-haired girl's gaze. Miroku didn't need to look again, but did.
Inuken was hardly recognizable; the change had not been merely psychological but physical. Claws several inches long and deadly sharp decorated his hands, and while awake Inuken's normally golden eyes had bled crimson in a manner eerily familiar. Perhaps the most noticeable change, however, was the hair that drifted down to touch Inuken's shoulders. Instead of midnight black, the strands were moonlight silver with black only at the very ends. From this silver hair, at the top of Inuken's head, two dog ears flicked unconsciously to follow outside sounds. In short, the boy had gone from mostly human to approximately hanyou in the span of a few moments.
The ears began to twitch more fervently. Miroku put a hand on Aya's shoulder and pulled her away from Inuken. He motioned for Sango and Mineko to move back as well. He thought they did so more because of uncertainty than any trust in him. As the four watched on, Inuken stirred, and a groan issued from him.
"N-Nani?" Inuken's eyes, still crimson, blinked and tried to settle into focus.
"Inuken-san!" Aya started to move toward the boy, but Miroku tightened his grip on her shoulder.
"We don't know if he's completely coherent yet."
"Nnh?" Inuken reacted to the sound of their voices, orienting on where they stood with uncanny precision for someone who still had yet to focus.
"Inuken, do you know who I am?" Miroku peered closely at the boy but took no step closer.
"M-Miroku-san?"
"Hai." The monk sighed and smiled. "Do you remember what happened?"
The boy paused, then slowly shook his head as those eerie eyes finally fell into proper focus. Miroku shuddered involuntarily at the memories those eyes caused to surface. Inuyasha, grinning as blood soaked his claws. Inuyasha, laughing as human men fell beneath his grip. Inuyasha, so lost in his blood-lust that even Kagome's voice failed to reach him. Miroku forced these visions away in order to save Inuyasha's son from reliving those moments.
"You . . . attacked us, Inuken. The villagers were frightened. We had to leave the village and come to the forest. Something has happened to you, and I think I know what, but I need you able to listen fully to me before I explain."
Sango's worried gaze met his, and Miroku saw the same anxiety in those dark eyes that he felt. She knew as much as he did, remembered the same things. Surely she had reached the same conclusion.
"Tell me." Inuken spoke with few words, and those were given in a barely human growl. The blue-slitted scarlet eyes, however, revealed very human fear. Whatever else Inuken had become, he retained enough humanity to worry about his state, and that was more than Inuyasha had been able to do. Given this small piece of reassurance, Miroku took a deep breath.
"All hanyou, such as your otou-san, have a time during every month when their youkai blood recedes, leaving them completely human. This happened to Inuyasha, and during that time he did not sleep, and was wary of interaction even with his friends." Miroku watched Inuken carefully to make sure the boy was listening. There came no movement from the half-hanyou save the possibly unconscious twitching of his ears. "There are very few hanyou, Inuken. They're rarer than people might think, but there are enough of them for the consequences of being hanyou to be readily known." Miroku paused again, but getting no reaction from his audience, had to continue. "As far as we know, you are the only half-hanyou. None of us knew what to expect from you, either in power or in consequences. Not even Inuyasha knew if the same rules would apply to you, if you would experience the same loss of power that he did."
Next to him, Aya gasped. Mineko released a strange sound, one Miroku couldn't classify, but showed she was listening. Sango remained silent. Inuken glared.
"What are you saying?" The boy snarled, showing fangs beneath his lips at least twice the length they had been. "My parents had me not knowing a fucking thing about what would happen?!?"
"No one knew what would happen, Inuken." Miroku knew he had to proceed cautiously, and even then would likely get burned. The boy did not seem in any mood to be patient or understanding. "I believe what has happened to you is the opposite of Inuyasha's transformation. Instead of losing all of the power of your youkai heritage, you've gained more. I would say you are around a hanyou in power, perhaps a bit more considering your particular heritage."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Inuken began to struggle against the ropes that bound him, and Miroku knew they had little time before the half-hanyou—
or hanyou?— managed to free himself. He had to be calmed before then.
"Your otou-san had another transformation, Inuken, one he did not like to think about. Be calm, and listen." Miroku watched the boy fight back his urge to break free. "The youkai who fathered your otou-san was not just any youkai, Inuken. He was the Lord of the Inu Youkai, a taiyoukai. A great youkai."
"Inuken-san is a prince?" Aya offered the question tentatively, her gaze trained on her transformed friend.
"Of a sort, yes. His oji-san, Sesshoumaru, is the first in line to inherit and naturally his offspring would be first in line after him. If he should, for any reason, be unable to take power, however, it would fall to Inuyasha and through Inuyasha, to Inuken."
Inuken was unimpressed.
"What the hell does any of this have to do with what's happening to me?" Miroku noticed the boy's hands twitching, as if those claws itched to seek out flesh and rip.
"Taiyoukai blood is different than normal youkai blood, more powerful. The Lord of the Inu Youkai had two sons, one by his first wife, another youkai, and the second by his second wife, a human woman. His first son, being full youkai, could safely assimilate his otou-san's blood."
"Sesshoumaru," Sango offered, and Miroku nodded.
"The second son, however, being hanyou, could not. The blood of a taiyoukai is far too powerful for the half-mortal body of a hanyou." The monk paused in his explanation to check Inuken. The boy had ceased twitching, all attention on the story. "The Inu Lord knew what would happen to his youngest son should he take no steps to prevent it; the boy would be overcome by the taiyoukai blood in his system. It would eat away at his mind until he became nothing more than a mindless beast, capable only of fighting and killing."
"Otou-san?" Inuken's voice lost some of the harshness, for one moment becoming the voice of a frightened child.
"Hai." Miroku nodded, careful to keep his expression neutral in case Inuken should interpret any emotion as hostile. "Inuyasha's otou-san created a sword to seal away most of his son's taiyoukai blood, and guard the boy's life. None of this was known, not even by Inuyasha, until an oni bit through the blade of Tetsusaiga and it broke. After that, whenever Inuyasha was cornered in battle, when it came down to his life or death, his taiyoukai blood would come forward and transform him into the closest approximation of a full youkai he could achieve without the Shikon no Tama. However, it also made him violent, and mindless. Until the transformation ended, Inuyasha would kill anyone and anything across his path." Miroku stopped, and waited. He watched Inuken for signs of recognition, of comprehension. When Sango or Aya seemed close to making the connection for the boy, Miroku stopped them. Inuken had to understand for himself.
"Y-You mean . . . that this is the blood that changed me now?"
"Hai."
Inuken paused, crimson eyes slipping from one of them to the next, like hunter looking for prey. Miroku could not be completely sure of any sort of thought process going on behind those eyes, so he kept himself and his companions quiet, waiting for a sign that Inuken either grasped the last strand, or did not. Ever so slowly, the lips parted again and words slid past the fangs.
"I wasn't in danger. I wasn't fighting a fucking thing. So you're telling me this will happen to me every fucking month for the rest of my life?!?"
When Miroku nodded again, Inuken burst into a flurry of obscenities the monk hadn't been aware the boy knew, let alone could say. The transformed half-hanyou strained against the ropes and some of them snapped. Miroku moved forward, not yet knowing what he planned to do if Inuken gained freedom.
Mineko beat Miroku. She was at Inuken's side in a moment, kneeled, and her clawed fist came down across the boy's face without the mercy any of the humans would have shown. The blow seemed to do little more than shock Inuken.
"Be still, child," the neko youkai hissed. "Your rash actions have already expelled us from a comfortable place to sleep tonight, as well as ruined my attempts to create an alliance with these humans." She stopped, watched Inuken, then continued. "It is probably true that your parents thought little of the consequences of having a child that would be half-hanyou. Few people in love do think at all, let alone when the desire for children comes upon them. Certainly your otou-san's sire did not think of what might happen to a hanyou child of his before marrying and impregnating a human, else your otou-san might never have been born." Mineko stared at Inuken as she spoke, her golden eyes never wavering from his crimson stained orbs. Miroku realized that she spoke calmly and bluntly, but also with perfect candor, and her choice of words was designed to make the boy stop and think, to actually process what she said instead of just react. "Neither your otou-san nor his sire thought of the cruelty of bringing such a child into the world, nor of the cruelties such a child would have to endure once in the world. However, it is done and cannot be undone. You are here, and this is your life. It would be prudent of you to stop and think, as your parents did not, before you do something regrettable."
Mineko stood and turned away from the boy. Inuken sat slumped back against the tree trunk, silent, eyes narrowed and contemplative. The neko youkai arched an eyebrow at Miroku, as though saying Stupid bozou, we couldn't wait for you to get around to doing something.
"Well," Miroku finally said, "Why don't we make camp here? Mineko-san, we will stop in many more human villages, and you've already proven valuable to us. Perhaps we can help you in return. Should you choose to stay with us, I would not protest."
Sango snorted, shook her head and began polishing Hiraikotsu. Aya smiled tentatively, but her gaze remained on Inuken, who hadn't moved since Mineko's speech. As for the neko herself, Mineko gave no immediate answer, instead choosing to keep silent but not leave. Miroku sighed and set about collecting firewood on his own. He had things to think about, and, apparently, so did Inuken.
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Toushiko turned over the third card. Once more the Black Inu stared up at her, but the spread gave her no answers, and the visions swirling behind her eyes spoke only riddles. The three cards were the same three cards that she pulled in all her previous readings that day, including for her customer. Toushiko knew immediately the message had not been meant for the quiet child sitting across from her, and sent him away. She took no more clients, closed her tent, and drew cards again and again. Even when she took them from the deck, placed them elsewhere and drew, somehow she still managed to pull the same three cards.
Power. An enemy among them, seeking something ultimate.
Battle. A confrontation to come, with consequences for all involved.
The Black Inu.
Toushiko remembered them clearly from the day Akseh first entered her life personally. Why did they insist on showing themselves now? She already knew about the enemy, and a battle would be imminent once they showed themselves to the Inu people. The Black Inu was always present when there came Battle. Generalities, and no answers! What message lurked within the glossed pictures, and why would they appear to her now, when Akseh had not been seen since his attack on her?
The questions swirled inside with the unanswered visions, the brief flashes of sword and claw, of golden eyes and black hair, and twin heads of red. There were others, not yet clear, but none of them held the answers she sought. Not even the boy or his red-haired companions. Perhaps if she could See them better, but that was not in her control.
It was not fair! What purpose to this Gift if it gave no explanation to things such as these? Never before had her visions remained so vague so close to the event itself, and it was not fair!
Toushiko stood in a sudden burst of anger and pushed over the table, sending cards flying. Her small hands contracted into fists at her sides, trembling with ire. From her throat rose a sound somewhere between a scream and a cry. So frustrating!
Training and intuition kept her from moving, however, until all the scattered cards came to rest. Golden eyes followed the last card as it fluttered to the ground, beside two others, and Toushiko's odd sound became a full scream.
Power. Battle. The Black Inu.
End Chapter Eight
