CHAPTER TEN
Kirara streaked across the sky
with her nearly invisible passenger. Myoga sat just under her
left ear and gave directions.
"I had heard that a woman
who looked like Inuyasha had been spotted in the south, but
I'm afraid that's all I have to go on. Can you detect her, Kirara?"
The youkai roared in response.
"Good, good! Then to the wolves
we go!"
*
Kagome and the others sat down
to dinner that night with their new friends. Although they were
exhausted, they tried their best to stay awake through the meal.
A tall man with the character for "evil" on the back
of his shirt joined them.
"Good evening, Sano,"
Kenshin said as he saw his friend approach.
"You must smell free food!"
Kaoru scolded.
"Jo-chan, do you really think
I'm like that?"
Yahiko made a face. "She KNOWS
you're like that."
Miroku reached into his pack and
pulled out a small bag as Sano gave Yahiko a noogie. "I
want to repay you for your hospitality, Kamiya-san. I hope this
will suffice."
Kaoru blinked as she opened the
bag, revealing the ancient coins. "Are you sure? These are
Ryoo."
"I know." Miroku nodded.
Kagome whispered to him. "Maybe
you should give her half for now. In my time, the Ryoo is worth
almost 10 times what's it's worth in the Sengoku Jidai. I'm sure
it's pretty valuable today too."
"Aa..." He sweatdropped.
It was too late, but their stay was secured indefinitely.
As they ate, Sango's "baby"
became restless.
"Shippou, please. Be still!"
she hissed.
"I'm starving!" he hissed
back.
"Shippou? That's an odd name
for a baby." Kaoru leaned in to get a better look at him
and Sango put him up against her shoulder.
"Well, he's an odd baby!"
she laughed.
Sanosuke snarfed down another rice
ball and said something with his mouth open about how much tofu
one could buy with just one of the dozens of Ryoo Miroku gave
Kaoru.
"That's it! I can't take it!"
Shippou hissed and leapt out of Sango's arms.
"Shippou, no!!" his friends
yelled in unison.
He grabbed a bunch of rice balls
and started cramming them in his mouth. Kaoru, Kenshin
and Yahiko watched, stunned, but Sanosuke leapt up and pointed.
He was as pale as his shirt and shaking.
The others gasped and waited for
a reaction.
"Yuh yuh yuh..." Sano
stuttered. "YOUKAI!!!!"
Kenshin, Kaoru and Yahiko looked
at him funny.
"Well, he's a pretty ugly
baby, but that's not a very nice thing to say, Sanosuke!"
Kaoru scolded.
"I am not ugly!" Shippou
barked back, rice flying out of his mouth.
All four Edo-period people leapt
up and screamed.
"It's ok! It's ok!!"
Kagome tried to assure them. She got them calmed down and explained
that yes, Shippou was a fox-youkai and no, he was harmless.
"He's going to eat us in our
sleep!" Sano cried, still unable to cope with his existence.
"No I'm not, you silly ningen!"
Shippou promptly turned into a pink balloon-thing and the poor
man made a Sano-shaped hole in the wall as he ran away.
"Don't you think it's strange," Sango asked Miroku,
"That the tall one saw him right away, but the others didn't?"
Miroku sipped his tea. "Hm. Perhaps the others are experiencing
some kind of block that makes them unable to see the super-natural."
"How strange," she commented and sipped her own tea.
*
The next morning, Houseki snuggled
in next to Kouga and smiled. It was a chilly morning, but their
cave was dry and warm. She never thought that such simple living
could be so wonderful. He kissed the nape of her neck and she
fell back to sleep.
A nagging, pinching feeling woke
Houseki only a few hours later. She sat up and smacked her face.
"Oyaho gozaimasu, Houseki-sama!"
a tiny voice cried as the flea fluttered down from her hand.
"Good morning? Who are you?"
"I am Inuyasha's retainer,
Myoga the Flea, and I've come to seek your immediate help!"
"What's wrong?" she asked,
very seriously. Kouga was drowsy but as Myoga revealed the details
of what had happened, they both sprang into action.
The area around the well was
desolate. Houseki smelled that Miroku, Sango, Shippou and Kagome
had been there recently, as well as Naraku. She wrinkled her
nose. Kouga nodded.
"Myoga, go back to the village.
This isn't going to be pretty."
"If you insist, Houseki-sama."
Kouga saved his comments about
Myoga's cowardice, because he sensed Naraku's presence. They
walked cautiously towards the God Tree.
"I really don't want to see
him, Kouga," she said, referring to her father.
"I know." He held her
hand.
"About time," an unmistakable
voice intoned. "The stragglers have shown up."
"Naraku!" Kouga shouted
and pounced.
"Kouga, no!"
It was too late, Naraku struck
him down easily, picked him up by the neck and began so squeeze.
"You owe me a favor, my dear," the hanyou hissed to
Houseki.
"I owe you NOTHING. I spared
your life. Let Kouga go!"
"That's not the way I work,"
he sneered and squeezed tighter.
"What do you want!?"
Houseki screamed.
"Cooperation. You do me a
little favor and I'll consider letting you live. I really have
nothing against you, Succubus. If you go through that well and
kill Miroku, Sango and Kagome, I will leave you alone."
"Fuck no."
He raised a brow. "Every bit
your Father's daughter, aren't you? Too bad he's dead."
Houseki growled and prepared to
launch herself at him. Her claws clicked together.
"Hou..ski..." Kouga croaked.
With everything he had left, he threw a small bag at her. She
caught it: Kagome's collection of Shikon shards.
"What!?" Naraku yelled
and dropped Kouga. Houseki thought fast and ran for the God Tree.
*
Kaoru took Sango and Miroku to
town to spend some of their money. Shippou and Yahiko hung out
inside the dojo, exchanging stories about fights and the men
they considered heroes. Kagome found a bow and arrows and set
about a little target practice.
She drew the bow. 'We're trapped
here.' She took aim. 'The shards are gone, most likely they're
in Naraku's hands.' Her eyes narrowed. 'And I have no idea how
that has come to be,' Kagome burned the bull's eye into her brain,
'or if Inuyasha is alive or...' She
let loose the arrow and dropped the bow. It hit dead on. She
ran out of the complex, followed at a safe distance by Himura
Kenshin.
Kagome ran past the shrine and
charged into the forest, gasping for breath. Her tears streamed
across her face and she wished she had her bicycle. She came
around the back side of the God Tree and stood in front of it,
ashen and shocked.
"Oh my God, Inuyasha!!!"
The tree was almost completely
covered in vines and lichen; much how it looked in her time,
only she could just see his face, a foot and a hand poking out
from under the growth. The arrow was mostly disintegrated, but
it's glow was obvious to her eyes.
It all came back to her: the poisonous gas, Naraku, the well.
It was all his doing, but SHE had killed Inuyasha. Kagome wept
at the base of the tree and tried to think of what to do.
Her concentration was interrupted
by voices. She turned her head to see a group of people move
into the clearing.
"And here we have the famous
'Spirit Tree'", Kagome's ancestor, the priest told the group.
"On which it's said a demon was impaled and imprisoned here
many centuries ago."
"Ooooohhh...."
Kagome blinked from them to the
tree and back again a few times. "You mean, you can't see
him!?"
The tourists muttered to themselves.
She stood up. "I'm the one
who did it! Yeah! It was me."
"Please, cousin, don't make
a scene," the Higurashi priest tried to quiet her.
"You mean you really don't
see him!?!"
"See who, cousin?"
"Inuyasha!"
The group laughed at her and moved
on to the next sight on their tour. She slumped back down the
ground. A shadow appeared above her.
"What do you see, Kenshin?"
she asked him.
He squinted, but replied, "I
see a tree."
"I must be crazy..."
Kenshin helped her to her feet
and they turned back for home. Just as they were leaving the
clearing, Kagome's senses perked up. She spun around and looked
to the tree. There was an intense glow coming from its trunk.
"That wasn't there a second
ago!" she shouted and ran back to the tree.
*
Houseki climbed up her father's
body and tried in vain to pull the arrow out. Naraku was closing
in fast. She remembered that when she had taken the shards into
her body, she had gained a great deal of power. If she could
just get these into his body... In a panic, Houseki popped the
bag into Inuyasha's right ear.
"Wake up, Tou-chan!"
she shouted. Naraku grabbed her leg and pulled her down.
GLOSSARY : Ohayo gozaimasu = good morning.
END CHAPTER TEN