Chapter 27. I'm a believer
"One moment," Shippou untied the roping around Sango's feet. He crawled up higher to get her hands.
"Thank you, Shippou," she said.
Once Kagome was free, she decided to set up the infirmary. She sent Inu Yasha to get her backpack so that she could have her first aid kit. He did it compliantly, for once. He wouldn't have let her go alone to get it, but he went by himself because it was just quicker that way.
So once that was accomplished, Kagome spread out a black two person beach towel covered in smiley faces with their tongues ladling out. Inu Yasha walked over to Shio and looked down at him with a dry scowl. His shadow fell over the fox/dog at an angle. Inu Yasha's shadow did not block the sun, but Shio was still and the light didn't seem to bother him. From light nicks to deep lacerations, that Daggerclaw really did a number on him.
Inu Yasha rubbed his hands together briskly, reached down at lifted the bishi up by his underarms. He began to drag him over to the blanket like he was dragging a boxer out of the ring. "Maybe this'll teach ya to stop using drugs." Inu Yasha grunted.
"Oh you're one to talk," Shippou jumped on his shoulder. "Remember that party you went to once with Shio and you were completely wasted and-"
BONK!
"HEY!!" TT Shippou shouted angrily.
"Just shut up and go free Miroku, will ya?!" Inu Yasha growled.
Kagome tsked as the sliced up bishi was laid on the other side of the blanket, "It looks like I'm going to need more bandages after this."
Inu Yasha sat on the other side of Shio, scowling at her. "So, are you saying you "need" to go back to your era?"
Kagome could already see where this was leading, and she didn't feel like it. "Come on, Inu Yasha; gimme a break for once!"
"I'll give you a break alright," he replied.
"Osuwari."
WHAM!!
Inu Yasha yanked his head right
back up. "Bitch! What was that for?!"
Kagome shrugged innocently.
"It wasn't me!"
"Oh yeah, like someone else can use that godforsaken spell against me!" he shouted sarcastically.
"Osuwari!"
WHAM!
"I said, stop it!"
"I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!!" Kagome cried.
"THEN WHO DID!?" he shouted back.
All of a sudden, Inu Onna climbed onto his head and peered down into his face with her pouty little scowl. She looked him straight in the eye and said, "Osuwari!"
WHAM!
The puppy scampered off of him and over to where Shippou was getting Miroku down. Kagome stared in the direction she left in surprise.
Inu Yasha pulled himself back up looking both angry and in pain. "Damn it, out of all the words in the Japanese language, she had to choose that one as her first!"
"Osuwari!"
WHAM!
"INU ONNA!" her father shouted.
"No, that was me that time," Kagome stated and waved a finger at him. "I don't want you saying bad words in front of the baby."
"Screw you!" he said sitting up.
"Yes well, that's what got us into this in the first place." She gave him a flat look.
He blinked back at her wide eyed.
Sango picked up Kirara gently. The kitty woke up and looked up at her master happily.
"Kirara?" Sango looked confused. Before, she was suffering and dying! Now she was wagging her tail, rubbing her cold nose against Sango's hands and purring – that cat was a hundred percent well!
"I don't understand!" Sango said in total shock. Then she noticed the small leaf the samuri placed over Kirara's nose. She slowly pealed it off and held it up to her face. It smelled strongly of medicine. 'What is this?" she asked herself. "Is this the antidote that psycho was talking about?" she looked at Kirara shocked. "Did he cure you after all???"
Kirara gave her a mew without meaning.
This was awfully strange to Sango. Most kidnappers and such only cared about themselves and would lie to get whatever they wanted – but Daggerclaw took the time and effort to appropriately administer an antidote to Kirara. Sango looked upward deep in thought. "Just like he said he would," she whispered.
She stood there, thinking for a few moments before she felt a hand rubbing her behind. She opened her eyes wide in alarm.
SLAP!
"What is wrong with you?!" she shouted at him.
Miroku stood there calmly with a large red handprint on his face and a smile. "Just trying to lighten the mood, hehe."
Kagome was almost done with the bandaging. As she looked for the spot where she set the medical tape down at, Inu Yasha leaned over Shio, modestly concerned.
"He'll probably be unable to continue in his search for a mate for a while, you know." She said patting the ground around her with her hands trying to find the tape.
"Nah," Inu Yasha replied. "He's a demon, he'll heel fast. Then he'll be back to woman chasing before you know it."
"Speaking of woman chasing," Kagome looked up and called, "Hey Miroku! Do you have any need for medical assistance?"
Inu Yasha gave her a funny look, "What are you, the red cross?"
Kagome ignored him, "Miroku! Tell me now, before I put the first aid kit away! Do you need any help or what?!"
Miroku knelt down next to where Daggerclaw collapsed, examining the body. After a moment he nodded once in confirmation and carefully tried to lift the body out of the scattered metal shards.
"What are you up to, Miroku?" Sango came over and asked. "He's just a corpse now, isn't he?"
Miroku grunted as he lifted Daggerclaw's body into his arms. "Nope."
"Do you need help getting him over to the blanket?" Sango asked.
Miroku smiled at her sweetly. "Nope – nope – but thanks for the offer, Sango-san."
She blushed lightly and watched him walk over to the blanket. Kagome pushed all of her supplies off of the other side of the blanket and Miroku laid Daggerclaw down next to Shio.
"Hey," Kagome said looking at Daggerclaw's body now that the metal refuge had been stripped away. "Wait a minute,"
"Oh, no way," Shippou said staring in shock.
"That's what I was trying to say before Daggerclaw knocked me out," Miroku replied sitting the body up for better view. Under the metal, Daggerclaw had worn a white kimono shirt and pants, but even that got ripped up a lot. Daggerclaw now had no shoes, but still had very small feet to match the height of the body. The skin was pale white where the blood wasn't flowing. The armor made Daggerclaw look muscular, but under and up close, their kidnapper and "amazing fighter" had a relatively small bone structure and looked rather thin and frail. The face was young and heart shaped, and the scalp cloaked it in long, black human hair that went as far as the elbows in length. The body had short legs and well proportioned pear shaped body. Without the armor, this Daggerclaw person would have come off as none other then a young, innocent teenage-
"Girl?" Inu Yasha asked in confusion.
"That's right," Miroku nodded.
(AN: He's just like Encyclopedia Brown, isn't he? )
Kagome remembered when Shio saw Daggerclaw. She had thought he was drunk when he said, "Hello sex-say la-day!"
"Shio must have known, too!" Kagome said.
"I don't know, Kagome," Inu Yasha commented. "Shio loves woman, and he seemed pretty okay with slicing her up."
"Well yeah, but look at this!" Kagome pointed at the various wounds all over Daggerclaw's body. "When he did that ultimate attack – it looks as though he missed all of her vital points on purpose!"
Everyone agreed with her.
"Sango, can you help me with her wounds? There are more cuts here then an episode of The Sopranos." Kagome declared.
"Sure," Sango moved around to the other side of the first aid kit and they started at opposite sides of the body.
Miroku watched them, then looked at Daggerclaw's face again, "She's very lovely – in a earthy, natural way, too. I wonder why she would want to dress up like she did and pretend to be a man?"
Sango glared at him while she bandaged. "Keep your eyes in your head there, Houshi-sama."
"What?? I wasn't looking at her!" he said defensively.
"Yes you were! You just described how pretty she is! You know you weren't really just looking at her face..." Sango said bitingly.
Miroku paused looking at Sango with a hurt, puppy dog expression of his own. (AN: Cute! ) "Sango, you have no need to worry." He snuck up behind her somehow and placed his large hands on her shoulders.
Sango jumped and paused mid bandage.
He leaned his forehead against the back of her head. "You know that you're the prettiest girl in the land."
Kagome smiled and put her hands together joyfully. Aside from being an Inu/Kagome fan, she is also strongly a Sango/Miroku fan.
Inu Onna hopped ontop of Shio's chest and sat on it like a cat. Shio moaned and turned his head toward Inu Yasha. Kagome tensed up and sweatdropped. Inu Yasha looked down at him casually. "Rough day?"
Shio moaned with a sick, unhappy expression on his face. T T "Horrible, hellish day, man! Each date didn't go well for me at all! Some of them were really weird, some of them scared the hell out of me, some of them really surprised me in a bad way!" he moaned again. "I also got my tail bitten by a puppy, and I fought some really hard core fighter while I was trying to be under the influence and forgetting about my pain, now I'm in pain both emotionally and physically! TT At this rate, I'll never find a mate!"
"Oh come on, Shio!" Kagome said with an unusually large smile on her face and a sweatdrop. "There's a girl out there for you, you've just got to know where to look." She glanced at the girl behind him.
Shio just sighed, feeling demoralized. "What's the use of trying?" he asked tiredly. "All you get is pain! Ow!" He reached up and held one of the bandages on his arms looking straight up into the clouds. "When I wanted sunshine, I got rain," he sighed again, closed his eyes and turned his head. When he opened his eyes, he was face to face with the unconscious Daggerclaw. "Who is that?" he asked in a casual, calm, yet interested tone.
"That's Daggerclaw!" Kagome almost said too excitedly. She covered her mouth and added, "That person you were just fighting with, remember?"
Shio looked around in six different directions. "I – think – so…..Does that mean it wasn't a dream?"
Everyone facefaulted except Inu Onna who sat upright ontop of Shio's chest.
Suddenly, Daggerclaw exhaled deeply, and began to turn her head from side to side slowly.
"EEK! She's waking up!" Shippou jumped on top of Inu Yasha's head and began to gnaw on it nervously.
BONK!
"QUIT Hitting ME!" Shippou shouted holding the lumps on his head.
"I will when YOU quit annoying me!" Inu Yasha shouted back.
Daggerclaw opened her eyes and looked around as her vision started to go into focus. "Wh – where am I?" she spoke in a different voice, that was…..much more feminine then before.
"Hold still," Kagome tightened the bandage around her upper arm.
"Ugh!" The girl felt the pressure of the bandage tightening. "Where am I?!" she asked much more firmly and in a tone of voice that was still feminine yet harsher like the one she used as a samurai. She squinted around at everybody in somewhat of a daze. "Who are you, what do you-?" she turned her head and her eyes widened as she was right in Shio's face. His eyes widened nervously.
"You!" she shouted. Shio made himself back away, afraid of being hit. She tried to move but instead got fifteen miscellaneously placed stabbing pains all over her body. She grimaced in pain and a drop of sweat rolled down her forehead.
"Don't move! We're not done bandaging you yet!" Sango ordered.
Daggerclaw began to make herself sit up, through the pain. "I – I don't need – your help!" she choked and coughed halfway into a kneel. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth as she coughed violently. She looked at her hand which now had blood on it.
Kagome and Sango began to make her sit down. "Okay, now that's generally a bad sign…" Kagome stated.
"Let go of me…Let go…" Daggerclaw complained in a pained voice. Once they pushed her back down on the beach blanket, she didn't try to get up again. She moaned, as if she wanted nothing more then to leave.
"Gee, I'm sorry."
"Huh??" she looked at Shio wide eyed. Whether she was angry or scared, it wasn't easy to tell.
He looked at her with a guilty yet cute and innocent expression on his face. "I'm sorry I gave you so many owies, please don't hate me."
"H-hate you?!" she hissed, she started to sit up again. "It's – too late for – that, - slut – boy!"
Miroku, Sango, and Kagome had to really work to get her to lie back down but they ended up having to hold her down. "You'd better …… kill me now!" she threatened. "Because my main objective……is to turn you in, punk-!"
"Okay, you're getting too excited," Sango commented.
Then Daggerclaw rounded on them. "If you motherfckers care about that creature so much, you should leave my wounds open, take him and run to the ends of the earth!"
"Yes, well, we're stupid like that," Kagome said.
Shio was in shock, he slowly sat up. Already his wounds were beginning to magically heal themselves. "Why do you hate me so much?" he asked.
Miroku, Sango, and Kagome finally pushed her down again. She glared up at him with a coldness that could start an ice age. "Because you're you," she spat.
---------------------(flashback) &&&&&&&&&&&(())#HF:LEFG
Shin'yo stepped onto the white tile path of the zen garden. She delicately dusted off the front of her kimono, eyes cast downward as if avoiding their gazes. Sashimasu began to walk toward her.
Somehow, Yukidaruma's teacher seemed different to him. She looked the same, but her presence was much different. It was hard to explain just how he saw her as different. Her newfound power though, was aided by her enchanting mystery.
"You…Bitch!" The palm of Sashimasu's hand connected with the velvety smooth surface that was her best friend's left cheek.
Shin'yo was forced off of her feet by the strength of the blow. She held her cheek with a pained expression on her face. It wasn't physical pain, but sympathy and guilt pain that kept her of the concrete.
"How could you do this to me?!" Sashimasu cried at her. Shin'yo merely sat on the concrete looking at the tiles. She held her cheek with a demure gesture, while keeping a firm grip on her staff.
Angrily, Sashimasu grasped the front of Shin'yo's robes and pulled her face inches from her own. "Tell me why you would do something so horrible!!" Sashimasu cried out. Shin'yo only looked upon her with sorrow.
Yukidaruma sidestepped like a crab over to Sashimi and whispered, "I don't understand! What is she talking about?"
Sashimi sighed sadly and lightly squeezed his arm. He looked down at her hand nervously then at her serious and saddened face. "Mother speaks of a crime worthy of the seventh circle of hell."
Yukidaruma gasped.
(Jack Sparrow: "-The deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers.")
"I know the intensity of my wrongdoing," Shin'yo replied. "And I do not blame you for your hate – but you must understand – please understand, Sashimasu, I'm sorry, I love you, I would never mean to hurt you or your family in a thousand years - !"
"HATE?!" Sashimasu threw her back on the ground. "A pitiful word like hate doesn't even come close to describe the loathing that I feel!" she pointed down at her. "You Shin'yo, are no friend of mine!"
Tears lined Shin'yo's eyes, but she couldn't bear to look up at Sashimasu. "I am a fool for what I did. I am eternally sorry."
"Sorry isn't going to make that child in your womb any less of a whore then you!" Sashimasu insulted her venomously. A whirlwind of fiery blue light erupted around her. A locket that had been hidden in the lining of her kimono lifted itself out, conducting Sashimasu's uncompleted yet dangerous silver light magic. "For what you did, I can never, ever forgive you! Not for anything! You are not my friend. A friend wouldn't hurt a friend the way you have!" Sashimasu sobbed. "The damage you did not only affected me, it affected my whole family!" The energy from around her drew toward her open hand. "I'll never forgive you for this. Never!" She squeezed the ball of light energy in her hand and moved to hit Shin'yo with it in a quick and powerful motion. Shin'yo quickly raised her staff and countered the shot-put like energy Sashimasu held above her head.
Shin'yo looked up at her with a serious yet sorry expression. Sashimasu wouldn't let go of the light she was holding and pushed it down heavily on her friend. From the past, Yukidaruma had learned that Sashimasu was much stronger then Shin'yo. Sashimasu was a fit woman who could literally juggle her daughter, her best friend, and Yukidaruma all at the same time. Shin'yo could barely lift a chair.
At the moment, Shin'yo seemed to be having no problem fending off her friend's dog demon strength. Shin'yo answered the confusion by saying, "The completed light is much stronger then what we once had, Sashimasu. You won't be able to hurt me." Shin'yo's light intensified and she blew Sashimasu back by the force of her aura.
Sashimasu fell back but recovered quickly, "You do realize – that we can never be friends again?" she asked. "And we cannot both exist at the same time….the only thing to do, is to get rid of one, so here I give you your punishment." she lifted her sword and that was when Yukidaruma closed his eyes and turned away.
He heard the crunching sound of blade breaking skin, piercing through meat and scraping against bone. Sashimi gave a soft gasp just before her mother gasped inwardly in demonic voice.
When he looked back, he saw Sashimasu fall to her knees while letting her back bend hunch forward. She held her clawed hands inches away from the hilt of the double bladed sword she had used to skewer her own ribcage.
Shin'yo looked on at her, frozen in total shock and disbelief.
Sashimasu looked up at her with a glazed expression and clenched teeth. "Farewell, Shin'yo! May the memory of my name and the time we spent working together serve as a constant reminder of our would-be-friendship as you give birth to my man's child and make love to him in the night!" Sashimasu fell over on her side and the light evaporated from her body.
Yukidaruma looked toward Sashimi. The child was horrorstruck. Yukidaruma had never seen her so distressed and it frightened him as well.
"Sashimasu," Shin'yo whispered hoarsely. She dropped her staff and ran to the cold body of her deceased friend. The enchantress kneeled in the puddle of blood and held Sashimasu's corpse, crying into her curly silver hair. As the blood shallowed out near the edges of the puddle, it began to trace the cracks and separations in the white tile.
Shin'yo herself was despaired to a point where she didn't notice that the blood had seeped into her green robes like a they were coffee filters. From hugging her, the blood had covered the front of Shin'yo's robes as well including over the rounded belly of her unborn light child.
The sky somehow became a lot darker. That night, there wasn't a star in the sky.
(end flashback)%%%%%%
