Dying to Live
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. (This chapter edited on 3 Feb. 2013)
"Kohaku?" Miroku breathed into the dark.
"Yes, yes! That's me," the young slayer's shaky voice responded.
Miroku moved across the room to relight the candle. Its warm glow cast shadows across their faces, but at last they could see each other clearly.
"What are you doing here? How did you find us?" Miroku asked in a breathless whisper.
"I—I wasn't looking…" Kohaku said with a sort of startled look at Miroku. He tried shift the girl on his back into a better position. His back was getting so tired.
Of course that would sound like a strange question, Miroku thought to himself, as he noticed Kohaku's fidgeting. "Oh, here, let's make a place to lay her down." Together they laid her on the blankets next to Sango, who was still sleeping.
Crouching down to rest his exhausted back and legs for the first time in many hours, Kohaku rubbed his face wearily and sighed as his muscles began to painfully uncoil. Without looking up he asked, "And the girl—you must recognize her, too…"
Indeed, Miroku already had the candle lifted above her, as he had started to evaluate her condition. However, now, he bent closer to her face. He drew in a sharp breath, as he examined the aged features of the familiar girl. "Yes! Her name is Rin. But how?" he asked, as he brushed aside a few strands of her hair that had stuck to the dried blood on her forehead.
"We met once when I was serving Naraku. Three days ago we met again in the forest," Kohaku explained. He went on to tell Miroku about the enormous dog demon, the nightmarish ravine that they had leapt into, the last few freezing days and nights of wandering continuously through the forest as he carried Rin on his back, and, finally, arriving at the inn. Neither of them had eaten in two days because Kohaku had been too afraid to leave her alone while he hunted for food, so earlier that day Rin, weak with cold and hunger, drifted into unconsciousness. He pointed out all of the girl's major wounds, explaining that two of them had been punctures from sharp sticks apparently buried in the slope that they had fallen down. After looking over one of these deep gouges, Miroku rose to go in search of the inn's staff to see if he could get water and any kind of bandaging and healing herbs to dress and clean her wounds. As he turned to go, the monk also reassured the boy that he would return with food.
Despite the harbinger of Rin's alarming appearance, Miroku felt somewhat excited at the thought of Sango finally being reunited with Kohaku; so, forgetting that it was still very early, he allowed the shoji door to shut with a rattling thud. Feeling physically at the point of collapse and even more wearied by this strange meeting with the monk whom he vaguely recognized, Kohaku dragged himself over to the writing desk. With his elbows on the desktop, he cradled his face in his hands and blew out a long, slow breath.
Then, beyond the ring of light cast by the candle left burning atop the desk, Kohaku heard the hush of blankets shifting. "Rin?" he asked, peering into the darkness. A feminine hand emerged from the shadows and came to rest on the floor mats. As the young woman leaned into the light, her features seemed to slowly melt into view.
"Kohaku?" Sango's startled voice whispered.
:
A cool, autumn night breeze blew the wisps of hair around Kagome Higurashi's face as she walked home with her three friends, Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka. On this evening, they were dressed in fall colored kimono to celebrate a historical festival put on by their neighborhood. At the head of the group were Yuka and Eri, who were snacking on roasted sweet potatoes, as they chatted noisily about the day's events. Behind them, Kagome walked next to Ayumi, who was much quieter.
Since making her final decision to remain at home in the current era, even in just a week, Kagome had found it was much easier to spend long periods of time with Ayumi than with Yuka and Eri. So, for the last few afternoons, just she and Ayumi and had gone out for coffee after Ayumi came back from class at her university's downtown campus. While practically editing out all of the details, Kagome had decided to confess to Ayumi that she had sort of "broken up" with her "bad boy" boyfriend. Even though Ayumi knew too little about the situation to really know how Kagome was feeling, Kagome was glad to have a friend to talk to. The past week had been so awful. Besides having no idea what she was going to do now that she was back in her own time, she was homesick for the feudal era, and she really missed—
No! I do not miss him! Kagome thought to herself. She was not going to miss him. But as she argued with herself, a little boy dressed in a scarlet-red haori ran down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, and she caved again.
"Kagome? Kagome?" came a voice.
"Huh? What?" Kagome responded, snapping to attention.
"Where do you go when you start staring off like that?" Ayumi asked. Then leaning in close, she whispered, "Were you thinking about You-Know-Who again?"
Blinking, Kagome realized that Ayumi must be referring to the ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately, she was right.
At last, the girls arrived at Kagome's house. After greeting Kagome's family who were eating dinner in the kitchen and preparing a pot of hot tea, the four climbed the stairs to Kagome's room. As her friends knelt down on the floor, Kagome went to crack open her bedroom window to let in some fresh air. Outside the leaves on the Tree of Ages shivered in the breeze. Taking a deep breath, Kagome turned from the window to rejoin her friends.
:
After what seemed like an absolute eternity to Inuyasha, the bath house keeper, a slightly hunched, elderly man, appeared at the edge of the tub. Bearing a dry towel and yukata, he passed one and then the other to the now dark-haired, young man.
Having surrendered all humility, Inuyasha cringed into the unfamiliar cotton robe and followed the old man down several more corridors. Blessedly, the humidity dispersed, as they travelled toward the back of the building, where they reached a hall of more private rooms normally reserved for post-bath lounging. Looking about as they walked, Inuyasha almost knocked into the frail, little man when he stopped abruptly before one of the doors. As the man slid it open, it became apparent to Inuyasha that this room had been specially prepared for him.
Fine cushions lay upon the floor, and trays bearing every grooming utensil imaginable were arranged upon a low table. By the back wall, a long white under shirt with ties and a pair of black, silken, pleated trousers hung on formal, wooden racks. The bath keeper offered him hot tea, but when Inuyasha rejected it, the old man put the steaming pot aside and exited the room.
Unsure of what would next happen, Inuyasha waited atop one of the cushions and glanced somewhat anxiously about the room. His eyes came to rest on series of combs and brushes on one of the trays, and he grimaced; he was definitely going to confront the next person who entered the room about all of this grooming business.
However, Inuyasha's plans were soon shattered when the door slid open once again, and in stepped a wrinkled, old woman followed by a pale, trembling girl. The latter, who nervously kept her eyes on the floor, could have been no more than 15 years old and was apparently terrified. Both were dressed as servitors, and the elder seemed to be the younger's mentor. Together, the two women chose tools from the trays on the table and set upon Inuyasha.
With a meaningful look and a nod of her silver-haired head, the older woman assigned the girl to Inuyasha's hair; she herself set to work upon further cleansing his hands and dirty fingernails.
Looking anemic, the fair girl approached him on her knees, and Inuyasha soon realized that it he who intimidated her. Although he could not see her hand quaking as it hovered over the crown of his head, he soon felt the slow, jittery stokes of the comb, as she fought to pass it through his hair.
Predictably, on the first knot it reached the comb snagged and fell out of the girl's hand. The old woman's eyes flicked only momentarily to the fallen comb, but otherwise she continued working. On the other hand, Inuyasha, who masked a small wince of pain, sighed and tilted his head so as to look at the girl out of the corner of his eye. Noticing this, she froze.
Having seen a similar look upon Kagome's face before, he felt his heart melt a little, and he did not have to tell himself to smile a bit as he said, "Look, I'm not gonna bite you." With that he turned away, but shortly after he heard the girl breathe again, and when she resumed combing, it was with much greater smoothness. When at last she finished, his dark hair was trimmed and shone with camellia oil. Finally, she twisted it into a perfect braid that ended just above his waist.
He and the two women exchanged bows before the latter left the room. However, he had barely righted himself when they were immediately followed by two maids, each holding a lacquer tray. The first tray bore a decanter of hot sake, which one maid poured into a small cup. From the second tray, the other maid served to him a festive meal of seasonal raw fish, soup, seaweed, pickled vegetables, and steamed rice. As much as Inuyasha still detested the idea of returning the jewel, he had to admit that the villagers' service made it a little easier.
When he finished his meal, the two little maids crept forward to clear away the trays. He watched again as they disappeared out the same door as had the rest of the servers, the same one through which he had entered. Therefore, he was very startled when Kaede's voice reached him from behind: "My Inuyasha—with ye cleaned and groomed like that, perhaps at last, I can see what my sister did see in ye."
The old girl chuckled as the back of Inuyasha's neck flushed, causing him to delay a bit in turning to face her. When he did, he found that there was a rather discreet door there, connecting that chamber to the next. Kaede stood on the threshold smiling in what Inuyasha considered to be an annoying way. Crossing his arms in customary defiance, he retorted, "Ha, ha. I bet you think this is pretty funny putting me through all of this hassle. But you sure play dirty, old woman!"
"If ye are referring to the moonless night, then I must say, fair is fair, Inuyasha," Kaede chided. "However, my plan would not have worked nearly so well if ye hadn't forgotten that it was tonight. Truly, my only reason for planning the ceremony for the moonless night was to please Lord Taka: he does not like demons, and so I thought he might find yer presence more agreeable if ye were human."
But Inuyasha frowned and huffed, "Oh, and being defenseless is supposed to make me feel better when I've already had the guy's soldiers breathing down my neck the whole way here? Sheesh!"
To this, Kaede just sighed and said, "Oh, just calm yerself and put on this shirt and trousers. Then meet us in the next room. The villagers have something they'd like for ye to have."
:
When Sango had seen Kohaku's face illuminated in the candlelight, it was everything she could do to keep from leaping at him. Still, she had allowed herself to reach out and grasp his hand between hers. At first he had looked surprised, but when he remembered her smile from his dreams his expression softened, and he spoke from his heart: "I've been hoping to see your kind face again." Patiently, he waited as she wept for a while in the dim light, understanding that these were tears of relief for him but not knowing why.
After a while, Miroku returned having wrested some welcome food and supplies from the inn's staff. Starving, Kohaku inhaled two bowls of rice topped with fermented soybeans, as well as a few morsels of baked fish that Miroku had managed to scavenge. Although excited to hear how he and Rin came to be there, Sango and Miroku let the boy eat, while they surveyed Rin's wounds. Then, he proceeded to tell them everything from his discovery of how the jewel shard had miraculously left his back to how he and Rin had escaped the dog demon in the woods. Meanwhile, Sango (who had to reassure her husband thrice that she was no longer ill) listened intently from behind a screen as she stitched up the deep wounds on Rin's lower leg and thigh. When this was done, Miroku crushed up some herbs from the kitchen and made a warm broth, which he administered to the unconscious girl. Sango cleansed and dressed her brother's milder wounds.
As he fed Rin the herbal broth, Miroku massaged the girl's slender throat in order to help her swallow. The conversation in the room was just turning toward the subject of Rin's mysterious appearance when suddenly, she trembled and began to cough on the liquid. Startled, the monk set the bowl aside and helped her lean forward to clear her throat. Drawing closer, Sango and Kohaku also watched, as her eyes fluttered open.
For a moment, she seemed to stare off into space, until her pupils constricted startlingly. As if plunged into icy water, she gasped in a high pitched voice, "Sesshomaru, Lord Sesshomaru! Please! Please!"
Kohaku was the first to respond. "She might be concussed," he tried to explain, speaking over her. "After the fall, she did awake, but she kept drifting in and out of sleep and mumbling about her lord. Occasionally, she became agitated like this—Rin! Rin! It's all right!" he spoke loudly to her, gently tapping her face.
As he reassured her, the girl's breathing slowly steadied, and her body relaxed. Blinking, she recognized Kohaku's worried face, but it was on a different face that Rin's gaze finally settled. "It's a miracle," she breathed. Everyone gasped, as she lunged haphazardly for the front of Miroku's robes. Unsure whether to feel threatened by this attack on her beloved, Sango lurched toward the girl's grasp.
However, Rin was oblivious as she gazed fixedly at Miroku, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Thank God! Somehow the kami have brought you to me!" she choked.
Shocked at this proclamation, the monk managed to untangle her clenched fingers from his garments. She helped a little by also choosing to let go, pushing herself into a sitting position with renewed energy. "What do you mean 'brought you to me?'" Miroku asked her curiously.
"A few days ago…" she began and then hesitated, frowning. "Well, at least, I think it was a few days ago, I set out from Lord Sesshomaru's castle in search of Inuyasha and his mate, the priestess. Are they with you?"
Miroku frowned. "I'm afraid that Inuyasha and Kagome are not traveling with us right now," Miroku responded, to which Rin looked crushed.
"Then, please, Monk," she begged him, clasping her hands together as if in prayer. "You must come with me! I fear that Lord Sesshomaru has been mortally wounded. I beg of you: if he still lives, help me save his life!"