Dying to Live
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Sesshomaru spun and feinted again and again. Each agile turn on the ball of his boot, every leap and dodge he made with the zombic wolf before him were like a dance to anyone watching. Clearly this member of the slayer's party had fought demons before. Moreover, his movements were charged with an odd primitive aggression. He leaned almost recklessly into the fight, an affront to the grace in his movements. As he approached the monster, he more or less loomed and eerily snapped his teeth as odd growling sounds emitted from him. Strange as his villager assistants found this display, they had learned in the past minutes that when at last he struck out with his blow, it would be serious. So as Sesshomaru swung, at last satisfied with the position of the beast, Tsukiko prepared to dive in. Her gaze followed the strong uppercut of Sesshomaru's blazing sword blade, as it breezed the ground on its way.
Shnk! Sesshomaru's battle blade lodged in the tough acrid flesh of the monster. The ex-daiyoukai's right leg shot up, and his boot pounded the sword handle into the earth, as he groaned with the power he put forth. Again, yet another zombic wolf toppled to the ground with shocked whines. The beast's wits were simply no match for the unpredictable action. Immediately, Sesshomaru drove forward, having drawn his dagger in the blink of an eye. Aiming, he went for the downed beast's right eye, just as he had done with the others.
However, in a quick, unforeseen moment, the beast turned its ugly snout on the blade. It thrashed, hitting the dagger. Sesshomaru's hand stung as his weapon tore from his hand, spinning away in some other direction.
A few steps away, Tsukiko reacted first: "Sessho's blade!" she shouted in Kei's direction, who looking cautiously, darted after the deflected dagger.
Not good, the thought bubbled up in Sesshomaru's subconscious. Immediately, he tried to backtrack away from the beast. He made to pull his battle sword from the creature's body as he went, but the damned thing was stuck. He cursed, as he maneuvered his arms and body narrowly away from snapping yellowed fangs. Efforts to dislodge the sword instead lead to dragging the beast around in an act of what might have seemed like macabre comedy. Still, not funny were the razor sharp teeth that came dangerously close to his forearm. Sesshomaru sweated as he imagined how quickly his thin shirt sleeve would shred at the slightest touch. Uncharacteristically, he panicked - something which Sesshomaru would blame himself for later, as this was where things started to go wrong. He didn't see the clawed back feet twisting up to slice his leg.
Out of nowhere, hot pain seared across the back of Sesshomaru's right calf. In an unfamiliar sound even to his own ears, he yelped. Tsukiko had jumped to action with the burning stick to still try to scorch the partially restrained beast. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru kicked out at the source of the pain, squarely landing the toe of his boot in the monster's middle. Although too late, for Sesshomaru had already been scratched by the cur's back foot, the boy Akio rushed forth and landed his sickle in the animal's haunch, though it lodged somewhat weakly compared to Sesshomaru's more practiced blows.
Unluckily this attack that Sesshomaru took was the distraction that caused Shippou to lose focus on the monster he had been restraining with his group. A trail of blood streaming grossly behind it as it ran, the ugly monster fled and surged straight for Sesshomaru. The tall slate-grey haired man was an ideal target, as he stumbled back from the lashing of the other creature's claws.
Sesshomaru turned toward the sound of growling, and Shippou's panicked shout of "NO" just in time to see the beast charging up from the ground with a leap, right upon him. A pang of fear chilled his blood in his veins. He knew already – he would not be able to dodge this.
Instinctively, the former Lord of the West raised his arms to block his face and chest.
Suddenly, the demonic scream of the creature mixed with another human scream caused his eyes to flicker open.
A woman's scream. Sesshomaru's mind reeled as it registered, and he looked ahead.
There Rin stood just behind the monster that was rearing in confusion. Her hands sprung up in the air beside her ears, palms facing out, as she made to back away and tripped over her own heel.
Truth be told, Rin had pushed open the latched door of the hut in a frenzy the moment Sesshomaru lost control of the possessed wolf that had scratched him. Already suspicious of her unusual behavior hot on the heels of the episode with the late highway trader's daughter setting fire to the hall, a couple of the villagers - a husband and wife both of them wrinkled and bit too shrunken to fight - had gotten up and, with help from their neighbors, had gone to Rin where she strained to see out of the hut. They tried to calm her as she grew excited watching Sesshomaru fight, even brazenly banging her hands against the wall with every victory he took and gasping with every near miss. She had realized somewhere in the middle of the action that whoever had dressed her, she supposed possibly the villagers, had left the old dagger lashed to her leg over her long underwear. It seemed odd, but then again, proper weapons were expensive and hard to come by for commoners. Perhaps they had been afraid to part the weapon from her for fear of accusations of or actual theft of it.
Therefore, as Rin realized that this was it, Sesshomaru's scrabbling on the ground with one of the beast's could lead to no good, she had seen red. The older couple watched her dip and pull the dagger. As the blade flashed in the low light of the hut, people gasped in fear. The raspy voice of an old man somewhere Rin could not see in the shadows said, "She'll open the door!"
It turned out everyone must have been watching Rin in the midst of her one-woman drama. A few women actually screamed, as the old couple standing up with her in the limited space available tried to grab her. However, their old clawed fingers were no match for Rin, though they nearly tore down the top of her bedclothes. Rin didn't care: she pushed ahead unlatching the door like a mad woman and tore through the opening. She felt hollow with fear as she sprinted the distance and shrieked ferally when she drove the dagger into the new beast that had dared to attack Sesshomaru. Dark blood sprayed her immediately, so that even if she had not been terrified at what she had just done, Rin recoiled from her grip on the dagger. Disoriented, she tripped backward toward the ground.
Stunned, Sesshomaru stared wide-eyed at the young woman, as a blur of turquoise silk and yellow-dyed crepe flashed between them with inhuman speed. A millisecond later Shippou had gotten there, having kicked the fleeing beast in the side so that it rolled several feet away from Sesshomaru and Rin. The kitsune landed, skidding several feet before beating upon the downed beast again with his cudgel while another villager holding a burning stick like Tsukiko did darted in to burn the beast.
As though consummately in possession of what seemed like inhuman speed to Rin, Sesshomaru also darted forward toward her. The front of him shined wetly with black blood, and his hands were smeared with it as he put his arm expertly around her before she fell over.
"W-what are you doing?" Sesshomaru could hardly put the words together, still barely processing Rin's sudden appearance. Her clothes were disheveled. Though she wore an outer robe over her long underwear, the panels of the robe were pulled back around the collar and parted more than they should have been down to her bust. It looked like someone had tried to pull the collar or the back of her over clothes to hold her back. Obviously, the crazy woman had slipped away though. The neckline of the undershirt was crudely made so that it was wide enough to leave her collar bone exposed, showing pale white under the moonlight except for a smudge of dark ash someone had missed wiping from her frame. And then of course, the spray of the stinking blood was all over her.
"I- I- I'm sorry, I was watching, and I was so afraid. B-but I couldn't l-let it-!" she stuttered incoherently. Her reaction had obviously been all impulse. Having executed her attack, the girl was quickly turning corpse-white except for a sheen of cold sweat forming on her upper lip. Her sense of terror was catching up with her.
Something in Sesshomaru immediately burned with indignant rage, while his mind caught up with the sight of Rin, again inserting herself directly in harm's way.
Because of me. Moving sharply, the former Lord of the West turned his face, and he couldn't look at her as his mouth grew bitter. He ground his teeth, and mechanically, he clamped his hands to her shoulders and quickly backed her up. He didn't even know what her expression was as he did so, but he did not want to know just then. Sesshomaru was unable to discern whether he was more angry at her or, even more irrationally, at himself.
Her head bounced against his chest with the sudden, rough change of direction, but Sesshomaru did not stop what he was doing. It helped that Rin's body seemed limp in his hold.
"Someone take her!" he snarled over her head, as he forcibly pushed her while making sure not to look down at her. He still felt the heat of her body lingering hotly on his palms as he let go. The touch of her coupled with his anger was doing things to his mind that he couldn't describe and could not possibly think about then.
"Sesshomaru...?" he thought he heard her breathe, but still he made sure to place his gaze anywhere except her face. The question burned at the back of his lips. Mentally, he squelched the outburst of words threatening to tumble out of his mouth. What was she thinking? He was all-too-aware that he could not take the distraction of his temper-fueled curiosity at this time.
Looking carefully left and right, an older man had ducked out of the hut where people sheltered. Bravely he crossed the few steps out into the open and thankfully claimed Rin from Sesshomaru's release. The former Lord of the West kept his eyes on the man long enough to know he had taken the young woman safely back into the building.
Sesshomaru tried to ignore the curling discomfort in the pit of his stomach, as the door to the hut snapped safely shut again. His constant companion now it seemed, the clenching pain somehow hurt him more than the gash he had already forgotten having taken to his leg. Yet, determined, he turned on his heel back toward the battle to regain his sword and dagger.
::
Kohaku slapped his palm against his neck as he flinched against what felt like an insect bite, though it seemed early in the season for mosquitoes. He scratched the spot anxiously, caught between distracted exhaustion and on-edge uncertainty.
The slayer sighed to himself and looked over his shoulder toward the flickering firelight against the cave wall where the jog in the passageway cut off his view of the inner cavern. It was quiet where he stood guard, the spot both too far from Miroku to hear his chanting and too removed from the outside to hear typical night-sounds of the forest. So deprived of any sight-lines or sounds other than the irregular whispers of the draft moving through the passageway, Kohaku had only to wait and listen for anything out of the ordinary.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was beginning to think it was getting a little long for comfort. Maybe I should have asked Brother-in-law how long it took last time, he frowned in silent disappointment.
Miroku had been so against repeating what he had done for Sesshomaru again whenever he brought it up that Kohaku supposed that was why he had failed to press for more details. Kohaku's jaw clenched, as a sick feeling threatened in the pit of his stomach. Though he didn't know what Miroku was up to, Kohaku figured that he too would now fear meeting Sango's gaze again. Though he was younger than his sister and her husband, Kohaku was observant and mature enough to realize that what had gone down between them after the fiasco at Inuyasha's wedding was serious and probably rooted in a hurt committed further back than just that day. Now putting the pieces together, he was starting to think that this sacrificial act that Miroku treated with such circumspect avoidance might be part of the problem.
He wondered if he should have insisted that they just try to take Kouga with them so that they could try some other approach later on once they were out of harm's way... But the young man couldn't help it – he trusted his sister's husband's judgment. How many times had the monk successfully helped get himself and their allies out of the worst trouble? Having heard from their friends of Kouga's bravery and loyalty, he understood why Miroku was willing to go to what seemed like extreme means to save him.
These ponderings weren't helping to calm the slayer's nerves at present. He needed a moment to unwind, or he wouldn't be ready for action if anything happened. He lowered his head to his hands and used his tired fingers to rub his forehead, brows and eyelids. That's it, he thought, seeking his own self-comfort. He rolled his shoulders and tilted his head back on his neck for a brief stretch before he would reopen his fatigued eyes and turn all alertness again.
He savored the last moment of darkness behind his eyelids, before suddenly he realized that's what it wasn't.
It wasn't dark. Something bright – so bright the light of it was enough to show through his skin and lashes – flashed through the area.
What? Kohaku's stomach clenched in lightning-fast reflex as his eyes snapped open to the same darkness as before. Unsure and wondering if he might have fallen asleep and dreamed of the unseen phantom light, Kohaku hardly had time to release a startled gasp before there drifted in front of him, like the eerie embodiment of a will-o'-the-wisp, was a soul-collector.
Mesmerized, Kohaku stared as the creature soared past overhead, a precious cargo of brightly glowing light gripped in its six insect-like legs.
"Pssst, Kohaku! Kohaku!" a certain racoon-dog youkai's jittery voice breathed in a whisper from the direction of the passageway's exit outside. Snout creeping into view first, Hachi leaned around the rocky passageway's wall. "D-did you see those?" the youkai stammered, trembling enough that Kohaku could see his snout-whiskers clearly shaking even in the low light.
The slayer's mouth opened to reply only to be interrupted by the undeterred passing of another flying serpent-like Shinidamachuu. its ghostly white body was illuminated along with their surroundings by the ethereal light of another glowing orb being ferried into the central cavern.
Kohaku chewed his lip nervously. Two more of the long-tailed creatures immediately flew through and around the corner to startled gasps from Hachi. A chill ran down the slayer's spine at the strange creatures drifting through, unfazed by his and Hachi's presence. Though he himself had never seen them in person before, Kohaku had been able to immediately recognize these creatures having learned of them from Kagome, who had once recounted a story of one of their encounters with the late-priestess Kikyo...
Brother-in-Law, does this mean you have been successful in your efforts? the slayer thought to himself, sure that these soul collectors had been willed here for Kouga by Miroku. Who had known that Miroku was capable of such a feat of calling souls on command? Kohaku couldn't deny the discomfort he felt at the sight of bare, human souls flowing by close enough he could touch them. He guessed that such a gathering didn't normally portend anything auspicious.
If only he could look and see what was happening inside the cave, he caught himself wishing again.
"Hey guys!" a third voice breaking over the darkness in the passageway sent Hachi visibly jumping out of his fur before Kohaku's eyes.
Another Shinidamachuu drifted overhead momentarily casting soft light over the worried face of Hakkaku. "What is going on in here?" he whispered down the corridor over Hachi's still petrified form.
"I think Miroku's doing it," Kohaku responded, trying to keep his voice soft though the realization that they were all three of them in the corridor meant that no one was keeping watch outside.
In direct response, Hakkaku replied, "I'm gonna head back in a moment, but I don't think I need to tell you that this isn't good. This is causing a major disturbance with these creatures. The wildlife around got all stirred up the moment these glowing white demons appeared. It's gonna make it hard to listen to the forest for when the dark Inu-Daiyoukai is returning. I'll only be able to detect it as close as I can smell it now."
Kokaku nodded his understanding, and fortunately, Hakkaku didn't waste a moment in going back to the watch, dragging Hachi back with him. They left with an acerbic quip from the wolf about the racoon-dog's scaredy-cat tendencies.
Alone again, Kohaku looked over at the direction of the central cavern. The same unnerving silence had returned. However, altered was the flicker of warm firelight, which had now been replaced by the cool, unwavering, silver-hued light of the unnatural gathering of disembodied souls within.
::
Deep in the forest's darkest part, two blood-red eyes, glittering like rubies set back in midnight black fur, narrowed hungrily. Against the backdrop of the velvet night sky, they looked up to the rare sight of floating glowing souls carried by Shinidamachuu twirling through the air - right in the direction of the dark-furred one's lair.