Chapter 53: Human Eating Horse

With the cart, the trip back to the village went much quicker. The tired could rest, the students could learn, and everyone could rest their backs from carrying their supplies. Upon their approach, they could already see that there was a marked improvement in the state and atmosphere of the exterminator village. They were allowed in easily, and after quickly separating their belongings from those meant for the village, went and spoke to Kei and Kiki in the healing cavern.

The general prognosis for all of the villagers who only had to fight off the horde of yōkai was good, the same could not be said for the three exterminators who had gone to Hitomi castle. They had been exposed to Naraku's miasma and none of their medicines were removing it from their systems. Dekuyume examines one of the pale clammy, unconscious men as Kiki grabs onto Kagome's arm, "Please, does your offer to try and heal them still stand?" Kagome gulps nervously, but nods all the same. "Yeah, it does. It sounds pretty bad though, I'm not sure if there is anything I can do to help."

Dekuyume sighs as she finishes her examination, it was a very simple thing, to remove Naraku's magic from their systems, after all it was hers too. Unlike when she was a child, and had combined her magic with playground sand and pollen to attack Hōjō in a fit of pique, Naraku used things that would destroy a body if they were exposed long enough. "The spider appears to be using a combination of magic and every poison he comes across. I have removed the magic, that will deactivate the toxins that need magic to actively harm their recipient, buying us some time. However most of the things that were mixed in with the magic are normal everyday compounds that our abilities will not directly work on. What they really need is a series of detoxifiers." Kiki, stressed from being forced to watch helplessly as her healing techniques fail and her husband dies, bursts into tears. "Used up… They're all used up."

Kagome, teary eyed, gently pats the distraught woman on the shoulders. "Hey, it's going to be ok, even if we have to go all the way back to the future and falsify a ton of medical records. Just take a deep breath and count to ten. Then plan the next step." Dekuyume smiles reassuringly as the woman looks up at the two of them. Next to their father, Sango and Kohaku release sighs of relief and Sango rises to give her mother a hug "Have faith Mama." Kiki relaxes, and instantly an idea pops into her mind. "The Hanyō." Sango leans back and confusedly asks, "What Hanyō?"

Kiki just shakes her daughter off, and pokes her head out of the small cove that served as Kei's healing room. "Prepare a cart to trade with Jinenji-kun!" She leans back in and smiles gratefully at the two miko, "Jinenji-kun is a horse hanyō, in the archives he is listed as a medicinal herb farmer. He's pretty young, only about 40 years old, but if anyone will have the herbs needed for a full detoxification series, it will be him."

It was rather amazing how quickly it all came together after that. Under the supervision of Kiki, a second cart was prepared for the transport of herbs, and loaded with enough rice and salt to trade. They were back on the road within ten minutes. Dekuyume watched Sango maneuver the cart, and occasionally helped Kagome with her homework. This cart was different than the other flat bed cart they had brought to the village. There was an overhead tarp, setup on ribs attached to the cart. It would protect the herbs from the sunlight and the elements on the return trip.

Dekuyume reaches out and steadies Shippō as they hit a bump in the road, causing the little fox to trip. "Careful kit, if you are going to run around inside the cart, use this opportunity to practice using your tail to keep you steady on unstable ground." He merely grins and nods before resuming his game of tag with Sōten and Kōryū.

Idly she reaches out and checks the strength of one of the ribs before movement at the front of the cart catches her eye. Ironically, she spots the trouble before the horse and the two exterminators talking quietly on the front seat. It takes only a matter of moments for her to draw her bow and string an arrow. It was difficult aiming with the horse rearing in fear, shaking the cart, and intermittently blocking the available paths for an arrow, but not impossible. As she falls to her side, shaken off her feet, she takes her shot.

The bruises on her side and back protest in agony as she slowly sits back up. Kohaku calms the horse, and Sango quickly butchers the weak wolf yōkai that had tried to eat their horse for what parts the village can use. Kagome watches with a mixture of interest and disgust before she is asked to purify the remains.

Unnoticed, a red eyed goddess darts overhead as the cart sets in motion. It was such a small delay, but it was enough to change the course of one man's life.

Instead of arriving in the village before lunch as they had planned, they arrived during it. It was a good thing too, because in their haste to leave, they had forgotten to get more food. At this point they had gone nearly a whole day with nothing but a few leftover granola bars and a bag of beef jerky between them all. There were nasty glares here and there at the non-human's in the group as they purchased a meal. Dekuyume in particular drew some of the worst of them, likely due to the fact that she still wore her miko garb while displaying her blood red eyes. There was also quite a bit of grumbling, but money was money, and the locals were not in any position to turn down paying customers. In the aftermath of Miroku's wind tunnel, the exterminators had managed to get quite a good deal on the salt Dekuyume had brought to the past to trade, so they had more than enough to silence any protestors.

Unwilling to stir up trouble, they got their food and ate in silence, it was only as they finished that they asked the proprietor which direction they needed to go to reach Jinenji's farm. There was more grumbling from three drunken men at the bar after Dekuyume asked, but her unimpressed expression was enough to stun them into silence. In retrospect, perhaps things would have turned out differently had it been Kagome that asked. A disguised red eyed goddess watches the group leave, and the brewing storm they leave behind in their wake.

They took the smallest road out of the village proper and went down to the riverside where Jinenji and his aged mother grew medicinal herbs on the farm left to Jinenji by his yōkai father. He greeted them kindly as they came down the road, and his mother poked her head out of the hut for a moment to gauge their intentions. It was easy to see the tension leave the massive man's frame as she harrumphed before returning to cooking their lunch. Shippō and Sōten stared up at the horse hanyō in wide eyed curiosity. "Wow! Hey Jinenji-san! How tall are you? Are you really strong? How'd you get all those scars? Are you ok?"

Dekuyume clears her throat and places a hand on each of their heads, "That's enough. You know better, don't be mean." Kōryū mutters, "Geeze, neither one of you have any manners." Sōten crosses her arms and pretends that she wasn't bombarding the huge hanyō with questions, and Shippō pouts cutely, "Sorry Jinenji-san." Bemused Jinenji shrugs his massive shoulders and squats down to hand the little fox Dai-yōkai a four leaf clover he had found in the field earlier today. "It's all right, the villagers are much worse, and they're never sorry until they need healing herbs." Dekuyume smiles sadly, "Yes, they did not seem particularly open to dealing with non-humans when we stopped there for lunch."

She waives to where Sango, Kohaku, Inuyasha and Kagome have finished unloading the goods they brought to trade. "We are here on behalf of the exterminator village, they have just recently had some trouble and are in need of a full range of healing herbs. The only ones we are in grave need of are detoxifiers, but we will take anything else you have." He looks at the strange red eyed miko in curiosity as she tilts her head to the side, allowing the young fox Dai-yōkai room to jump onto her shoulder. He also notices her nearly imperceptible flinch of pain as the boy lands, he had suffered enough harm at the hands of the humans in the village to recognize long enduring pain when he saw it. He says nothing though. While he may have inherited his father's strength, long face and big eyes, he did not inherit a yōkai's healing rate, and was covered in scars because of it.

Shippō shows Dekuyume the clover and exclaims excitedly, before jumping off her shoulder to go show Sōten. The old woman, finished preparing their lunch, comes out of the hut and examines the goods they wished to trade. Her examination was through, it wouldn't be the first time someone had filled a bag with sand and covered the top with salt or rice to fool them. She had endured this for so long that she is actually more surprised that there is nothing at all wrong with their offering.

Kagome smiles up at the hanyō, "Hi! My name is Kagome, and I am a miko in training. If it isn't too much trouble, could you show me what I need to do to help?" Jinenji is awed by the kindness in the human girl, and her completely genuine offer/request. "You… you aren't afraid of me?" Kagome just laughs and waives her hand, "Actually that's my line, you don't know how many times I've tried to talk to a yōkai only to have them shriek with terror when they realize how strong I am. It hurts my feelings to be honest. How about you?"

Dekuyume crouches down and pulls Shippō into a hug when she realizes that he too has spotted the old woman's surprise. Shippō mumbles into Dekuyume's shoulder, "It's not right. There's no fox-game in that, it's just cruel." She rocks him back and forth as the others load the herbs they are given onto the cart. "I'm glad you can see that. There is a very fine line between teasing and fox-games, and bullying and treachery. A lot of it has to do with cultural differences, but there are some things that everyone should be able to recognize as inappropriate." She sets him down and ruffles his hair, causing him to pout at her. "Hey! Anesan my hair~!"

She hears Sango and the old woman talking as she walks up, "Well, I'll do what I can, but if those fools in the village are too dumb to contact you for help, then I'm not going to do it for them. Let the nasty bugger take them all to hell." Dekuyume raises an eyebrow as the old woman and Jinenji go back into their hut to eat lunch. She asks Sango what the woman had been talking about as everyone gets back on the cart. Sango answers as she steers the cart down another path next to the river that avoids the village. "There is a nesting yōkai nearby who has been stealing villagers when they are alone. Their remains have been found at the edge of the river, and they think that Jinenji-san has been eating them."

Inuyasha scoffs, sitting cross-legged in the back of the cart. "Keh. Who's ever heard of a human eating horse? Typical. Random yōkai attacks village, and instead of going out and dealing with it, the cowards blame the local hanyō." Kohaku grips the reins in his hands tightly, "His scars. They weren't from protecting his Kaasan from yōkai alone so far out side of the village, were they."

Inuyasha looks away, "You got that right, if you really want to know who he got those from, you're better off looking for the culprits in the village we passed through on our way there." Sōten wraps her arms around herself, suddenly feeling cold as she remembers the face of the farmer that had attacked her. Humans always liked to pretend that yōkai were evil, when the real evil could be found in their own reflections. Gently, uncertain of her welcome, Dekuyume pulls the girl into a hug. After a few moments Sōten wiggles away and Dekuyume ruffles the girl's hair before she huffs and goes to sit with Kōryū.

A red eyed goddess watches as their cart goes over the hill. She jumps up into a tree to watch as the three drunken men from the bar descend upon the farm bearing torches.

The old woman spots them and the burning field first. She rushes towards them armed with her cutting knife as Jinenji runs to the river with a large tub for water. He crouches to scoop up a massive amount of water and spins in surprise as he hears a sharp crack. His eyes flare red, and his body is surrounded in a azure blue aura as he sees his aged mother drop to the ground, her neck clearly broken by the torch in one man's hand. Jinenji drops the bucket into the river, where it floats downstream, forgotten. He tears the men apart in his rage, heedless of the spreading fire.

The red eyed goddess watches as the bucket floats past her down the river. It would pass the group on the road in an hour, causing them to glance downwind and upriver to see the smoke in the air. It was only an hour, but it was long enough for the fire to completely consume the hut and the farm, for the smoke to draw in the curious from the village, and the tromping of many feet to lure the yōkai hunting humans for her hatchlings, to the surface.

The group would carefully turn the cart around and return, but by the time they made it back, it would all be over. Jinenji will have already killed the yōkai with his bare hands and brute strength, never having learned any form of combat before. But in his rage and grief, he would wait until after it had killed most of the humans standing in the burnt remains of his mother and his home.

The red eyed goddess watches as it all transpires, vanishing only when she hears the wheels of the cart coming back over the hill, and Kagome's gasp as she spots Jinenji sobbing in the ashes of his life, contemplating ending it completely. There was no need to watch the rest, she had seen it once first hand after all.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Dekuyume watched the horse hanyō for a long moment as Kagome struggled in vain to comfort him, causing herself to cry in the process. He had just lost everything. If the group walked away now, without a herd, or a home, he would probably take his own life. Dekuyume felt the same tugging at her heart that she always felt when the barrier around the shrine wanted her to help someone.

She sighs, she was fooling no one, the sensation was not some part of the magic left clinging to her through The Well of Time, even if she would have liked to pretend it was. It was just her heart, and the feelings that had grown inside of it under the hands of the Higurashi. She wasn't sure she was happy about it. There were so many problems that a person invited when they went around helping people left and right, she had been one of those problems once. But what could she do? Even the grass would die if it was trod on too many times, whether the feet were her own or those of others was immaterial. She would have to sit down and give herself some rules later, but for now… For now she would have to obey the emotions in her heart. "Jinenji-san."

He looks at the strange miko with teary blue eyes. Dekuyume walks over to him. It was a little exasperating, even sitting hunched down, he was still a great deal taller than she was standing. "It is my intention to trade a large quantity of spices for a horse and a covered cart and be-spell the two of them so thoroughly that a mountain could fall upon them and they would be undamaged. Unfortunately while I am capable of communicating with horse yōkai, I have no spell that will convey my assurances of safety to a normal horse. Can you do this?"

Wide eyed in surprise he stutters, "I… I don't know. I've never been allowed near the horses that pull merchant's carts." Dekuyume holds out her hand, offering him assistance in standing up. He chokes on his laughter as he accepts her hand, and is surprised when she is able to take on some of his weight. He follows her over to the cart, catching a strange scent in the air. It sort of reminded him of nightshade foliage and full moon nights at the riverside lit up with fireflies.

She continues as he follows along behind her, "From what I understand, it's supposed to be eas…" She can only grin as she sees him place his hand on the horse's forehead. She can tell the moment he stops focusing on them, and enters communion with the horse. It wasn't that hard really, it was probably the first time they had seen him standing completely straight. Even Kagome must have realized it was working because she smiled triumphantly at her sister mildly glowing with happiness. Dekuyume tilts her head back to measure him. I am a tall woman at 6 ft even, he is over twice my height, putting him at nearly 15' tall. His shoulders are wider than my arms can reach, putting them at at least 7' wide.

She approximates his weight to 1800lb considering his muscle mass, and begins mentally adjusting the spell array she had been planning since rescuing the water kami. It would need considerably more point-mass support, and at least triple the space-volume-density ratio she had originally planned… She is shaken from her thoughts as Jinenji exits his communion with the horse. Realizing that he is standing, he hunches down so that he is closer to their height. It made him uncomfortable, leaving them so many places to attack him.

"Clip-clop knows you will do your best to protect him, and he apologizes for panicking earlier when he saw the wolf." Dekuyume nods, gratefully, "Excellent now, I am going to make you an offer, you can accept, or you can decline. The choice is yours, and I will pay you either way." She smiles at Kagome as she hears her sister whop for joy. Jinenji watches the two miko, pity it wasn't the young one that was the leader of their herd… she seemed to be much nicer.

His attention snaps back to Dekuyume as she speaks, "If you would not mind guarding the children my house has adopted and any injured group members from within a cart laden with miko powered sutra, helping with their care the rest of the time, and general camp maintenance. I would like to make you a vassal to the Higurashi. It would greatly ease the burden on my mind, and back, and allow all available fighters to focus on fighting. I am willing to keep you fed, teach you to read and write, offer lessons on self defense if you are interested, and enchant some pots so that you can grow your herbs in the cart."

He can only blink, staring at her in shock, he stutters out, "You… you would trust me with your children?" Dekuyume tilts her head to the side, one eyebrow raised, smiling wryly, "Children, even human children, are sturdier than the tender leaves of the freshly sprouted herbs. Considering that you were fully capable of tending to those without issue, you will be fine. I'm more worried about trusting them with you."

She returns to being serious, "Travel with us to the exterminator village before you make your decision, contrary to what their name suggests, they are actually quite welcoming. If you find that you are unwilling to take me up on my offer, I doubt that they will turn an experienced herbalist away, and the other half a dozen yōkai and hanyō living in the village will help you get over your fear of humans."

She hops in the cart and pulls out materials to help Kagome study, the children to work on their mathematics, and for herself to begin making the sutra needed for a magical cart. She grins to herself as she begins the first sutra. Though perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a mobile fortress….