Chapter #5 The Crow Demon
This is the closest I've been to Inuyasha since that night with Lady Centipiede. Braced upon his back, my fingers clutch deep into his shoulders with every leap. He hasn't flinched once in pain, allowing me to secure myself safely with iron hooks to his flesh. My thighs embrace his sides perfectly, holding tight like well-made clasps. Being this close allows me to feel every flexing muscle of his back and sides, and with every movement his body surprises me on how toned and shapely he is.
The heavy tingling I've come to feel whenever I am around Inuyasha only flares this heavily when I am close to him and it's beginning to make thinking and reacting a near impossible feat. I've been trying to focus on every tree top we leap from just to remember why we are here. We've been going like this for only a few minutes but crossing a plain of land that would take a car at least fifteen.
He's incredibly fast, so fast that I know now that, that night he was chasing me he had to be holding back. He could have caught me in seconds, ripped me apart with his claws like paper but he didn't. My heart races just thinking about it. He could have killed me but he must have chosen not to. He also chose not to kill Kagome so I am not that special.
"Look!" He points out at a clearing that has a decrypted shrine-like house in the middle. Crows are everywhere, every raised up shingle to every tree top circling the abandoned clearing and they all caw while we quickly approach. "Must be a crow demon."
The scene brings me back to last night while Kagome and I were talking while in our makeshift beds, a single raven like bird sat on the window sill but its silhouette was all I can make out of it. This adds all together – that must have been a crow or the crow demon Inuyasha has just mentioned. "I saw a crow last night on the windowsill; at least I think it was a crow. It was pretty big."
"It was. I scared him away." We break through the last bit of foliage to reach the clearing; over grown weeds, grass and vines make a new home here with the crows flying above. The building itself is littered with debris, holes and armor, probably left behind from some battle. The front doors are broken off but manage to block the entrance, not like Inuyasha couldn't take them off with just a single hand, parts of the roof are missing and conclave, there are cracks all over the walls like spider webs. It appears abandoned but we both can hear the sound of men inside, yelling and hooting.
"I smell blood," Inuyasha states, "It's not hers but we have to hurry."
I scan the building from where I am at, eyes squinting for that familiar purple pink glow of the Shikon no tama and once I spot it I then search for the nearest reliable crack for us to break through without the building going down on us. There is a decent sized spider web crack in the middle on the left side, I point over at it. "There. I sense the jewel just beyond that wall." That's when I hear them. A hundred different voices whisper to me, calling and begging me to come. I look around but Inuyasha doesn't seem to hear them. I shake them off and focus.
"See, you are worth something. Now hold on!"
I duck my head into his thick white hair just in time for him to ram us through the wall leaving behind a man-sized hole in the side of the building. He lowers himself just a tad for me to step off his back. Where we are, is not exact to where the jewel is but I can spot it down the hall glowing more brilliantly than before. Kagome drops down against the wall directly ahead of us, where it opens up to a much bigger room, in her hand she's holding a spear that looks like it's been sliced in half and stumbling in front of her is a tall bald headed bandit who has to be at least seven feet tall.
She has no chance.
The bandit lifts his sword, it wobbles in his grip and she closes her eyes ready for impact. Without even seeing him off, Inuyasha leaps in-between the two just in time for the sharp blade to meet Inuyasha's arm, his red kimono sleeve somehow blocking and shattering the sword in half. The broken half of the sword falls to the ground with a loud clang as the entire room goes silent.
I stare at Inuyasha, pretty certain myself that his robe is not made of metal and is soft to the touch, so how can it? Remember Keara…this is some magical time period?
However, the bandits in the room have also seized to remember this and an uproar begins full of "What?"'s and "How dare you?!"'s.
"You…You came to save…" Kagome starts but Inuyasha interrupts by turning towards her with a deadly scowl and a glare crossing his face.
"Where's the Shikon Jewel?" He retorts.
Now that the sword is out of the equation, I rush over to Kagome's side and immediately get a waft of something nasty. It smells like death, like that Centipede lady after Inuyasha departed her. Inuyasha smells it too, he sniffs the air just once and turns his attention back to the bandit leader. I offer my hand to Kagome while the bandit leader is distracted but she just looks up at me instead with wide curious eyes.
"You came to?"
Really?
"So...here you are. What a vile scent, the scent of a half decayed corpse!" Inuyasha spits out at the bandit.
I narrow my eyes suspiciously at the bandit leader; both of his eyes are lazy and gray, blind and unseeing, he's also unstable, moving from one foot to the other as if he can't hold the seven-foot-tall fat weight. Kagome and the bandits look confused at Inuyasha's comment but I can see beyond it….So beyond and into the bandit's chest where the Shikon jewel glows bright.
"There. In his chest." I mutter to Inuyasha.
He nods, not needing any more information. "Show yourself – crow demon!" Cracking his right hand's fingers, Inuyasha slashes off the bandit's bamboo chest piece, it falls to the floor without so much as a thump and there in the middle of the man's chest is a small hole where his heart should be. Out from the hole pops the crow's head its three eyes peers at all of us and then it begins to caw and squeal loudly.
All of the other bandits that must have been following him mindlessly gasp in surprise, Kagome squeals just like the crow in disgust. After lady centipede, this doesn't surprise me, even if I could show emotions. Nothing surprises me anymore.
"Been eating chest all night, eh…to make yourself a cozy little nest?" Inuyasha smirks.
"The master…he's dead?" One man asks, obviously not having summed it all up yet.
"I thought he was acting a mite strange…" another replies. They are all too in shock now to attack us.
"That's so sick…" Kagome groans, finally taking my hand that has been dangling pathetically next to me. She looks pale and sickly from the sight but at least she can stand without wobbling.
Caw, caw, caw!
"Welcome to a parasite." I mumble. The sound is getting louder, it hurts my ears, and I even turn my head to the side to at least protect one of my ear canals.
"Too weak to fight your own battle, or even to manipulate the living, eh?!" Inuyasha says louder than before.
The bandit leader leans awkwardly to the side body shaking since the dead human can't hold his weight for much longer, and picks up a sheathed katana from the ground. His limp fingers manage to grab it and with all his weight, he charges at Inuyasha.
But Inuyasha is stronger and faster, "come out of that putrid mass!" He throws a left hook directly into the bird's nesting hole and out he punches the crow from the other side of the bandit's body. The mass of weight falls limp on top of Inuyasha, he heaves the body off and to the side with a loud thump.
The crow flies high above us, the caws it creates muffled by the Shikon Jewel that is entrapped in its pointy beak. When I hear Inuyasha growl I know he sees it too. How could Kagome let this happen, she was supposed to be protecting it.
Before we can do anything, the crow flies up and out of a tiny hole in the ceiling.
"Stop you coward!" Inuyasha yells trailing behind but not leaving the building. He searches our surroundings, his eyes stopping at a bow and quiver full of arrows. Snatching them from the floor he glares over at Kagome and me, "Come on!"
Inuyasha manages to hold Kagome and me on his back without losing his speed, it should baffle me but I'm far too entertained with Kagome fiddling with a bow and arrow. She's tried explaining to him that she's never held a bow but he's blatantly ignored her and leaped us out of the building and into the tree tops to catch speed with the crow demon high above.
"He will NOT get away!" Inuyasha yells angrily. "Don't just sit there, fool! Shoot it!" He glares over at Kagome.
"Hey, that's easy for you to say! I told you I've never held a bow, much less…"
"That crow demon, he only feeds on humans. What happens if he gets stronger?" He reminds her.
I can almost see it click on her face. I want to be mad at her. Mad that she lost the gem, mad that she's slow but all I feel is hollow.
I refocus on the crow, we're close enough now to see the jewel as it sparkles, and I can see the bird panicking. It looks back at us, in spite of us, it swallows the jewel. My heart drops.
"Inuyasha…" I mutter.
"Fly steady!" He doesn't hear me over Kagome's command. She's finally taking action for her mistake. She leans on the both of us to support her angling, lifts the bow, plants the arrow and struggles to pull the string back.
The arrow is unsteady; it shakes against the string and her finger. She's losing faith and Inuyasha can see it.
"One shot girl! Kikyo was a master of the bow!" He tries in his own way to encourage.
"I told you, I'm Kagome!" Her eyes squint on her target, at least she's more focused; and shoots. The arrow goes straight for the crow but there wasn't enough strength in the shot, the arrow takes a nose dive to the ground below.
I kind of want to laugh. Not as perfect as everyone thinks, huh, Kagome? Inuyasha looks horribly disappointed.
"Are you SURE Kikyo was a master of the bow?!" Kagome shouts in anger.
"I'm sure that you're not her!" He replies just as loud.
I roll my eyes back to the crow, the only thing is, it's no longer a crow but a scaly monstrosity. Its body has grown long and thin, feather wings are now bat-like flaps of meat and its beak has formed into a slit of rows of shark-like teeth.
This is the power of the jewel…and what has come to it when a single girl watches over it…