Chapter 10 – Unfinished Business
The hisa-me was chasing him back their way again. After Shiro and Goro's father ran past them Inuyasha stepped inside. "Die!" he shouted and swung at the youkai. It passed right through it.
"What?" Kagome said. All were shocked.
The youkai turned her attention on him. "You are not apart of this," she said. "Be gone from here. I can not rest!" Slowly she turned back the man, who was leaning again the wall, catching his breath. "He will die or acknowledge me," she said.
Miroku ran in front of the man. "I can not let you harm him!"
The hisa-me looked at him and laugh. "You can't kill me!"
Sango shoved past Inuyasha and went to attack the demon, but as she kicked her leg only passed through it. The taiji wasn't expecting that and lost her balance. Kirara, whom had transformed, took a lunge at the hisa-me. Like Sango and Inuyasha she went right through her.
Meanwhile the hisa-me approached the man and Miroku slowly. "Move, houshi. It is not you death that I come for, but that of his. If you insist on defending him you will die also. I do not mind."
Miroku put a determined look upon his face and ran through it with his staff, like the other he made no impact.
"What the hell is it?" Inuyasha demanded.
"It is like no other youkai I have ever seen," Sango confessed.
"I don't think it is," Kagome said. "Its not acting like one."
"What do you think it is?" Shippou asked.
Kagome shook her head. "I don't know."
The hisa-me began to advance on the man again. "No!" Shiro shouted. Goro whimpered again and ran to his father. Shiro turned to his attention to his younger brother. "Goro, no!"
"Get out of the way kid!" Kameko shouted. Shiro started to go after Goro, but Kameko held him back.
The hisa-me smiled. "Fine, little brother, you shall die with him also." Goro clutched to his father's side. Tears flooded down his cheeks. His father tried to pry him off.
"Go Goro. Save yourself," his father insisted.
The little boy shook his head. "No! I won't!" He looked at the hisa-me, trying to appear brave and not afraid of death.
The hisa-me reached out, her hand began to glow. "It's the touch of death," Miroku whispered. It looked like it was going to go through Goro's chest to his father. "Die!" it shouted. Everyone was in shock watching it happen.
"No! Stop!" Kagome said, jumping in front of the hisa-me. "You have no right to kill them, hotoke."
The hisa-me continued to put its hand forward, determined to go through Kagome. Yet as it was about to make contact with her she was repelled and flew towards the other end. She rounded on her. "You! You're a miko!" At this she gave a wail.
Shiro looked at the hotoke, as if seeing it for the first time. "Yuko?" he asked tentatively. "Yuko, is that you?" She turned and looked at him, but said nothing.
"Yuko?" his father asked.
She spun at glared at him. "Dare not say my name, for it will defile your mouth, will it not?" Goro looked up at this father, very confused.
"That was a long time ago. I did not mean those words," he said.
"Yes, you may not mean them now, but you meant them then. That is what counts. It is you that suffered me this. You who had banished me from my home, leaving me with out a name. I also meant those words that I had said. That I would come back and take you to hell with me. Suffer as I had."
"What's going on?" Inuyasha asked.
"She is a restless hotoke," Miroku explained. "She will not rest till her business is done."
"I will not allow you to take him!" Kagome shouted.
Yuko glared again at her. "Try to stop me, miko." A venomous smile played upon her face. "You look like you are to young to even know what you are doing. You're weakling friends can not help you either."
Miroku stood next to Kagome. "I will help her."
"Did you not hear me, houshi? You are weak. Nothing can stop me from this." She stared at him as if she was burning holes into his head. Then her expression softened slightly. "Yes. You are weak. So weak that you cannot even stop that hole in your hand from growing. You shall die because of it. May even take all your friends into it with you. That way everyone you loved would be gone. No one to remember you or to care that you are dead."
Something passed over his eyes, but his expression did not change. He began to take the beads of his hand. "You will go to a place far worse than hell, hotoke."
Kagome pulled his hand away from the beads. "No Miroku, that's what she wants. You can't risk it." He looked at her for a long time, and then put the beads back on. Kagome smiled at turned to the man behind, talking very softly to him.
Then the boys' father fell to his knees, taking his son with him. "Forgive me, Yuko. I beg it of you. I take all those words back. You are forever welcomed in my home. I restore your name to you. You are forever my daughter. Forgive me, Yuko! Forgive me!"
She looked at him. Her demeanor seemed to. Her expression of hatred began to leave her face. It was slowly replaced to that of a pretty young woman. Her voice began softer and peaceful sounding. "The curse has been lifted. We are free from it, Father. I can now rest." And slowly she faded.
Her father was now sobbing, calling out her name. "Yuko! Yuko! I'm sorry." He covered his face with his hands.
Goro wrapped his arms around his father. Shiro joined him. They boys clung to their father.
"Just like that?" Kameko asked, looking around suspiciously.
"All he had to do was take back the words he had said," Kagome explained. "It was just a guess, but I told him it might work. He had to mean it from the heart though."
"That was good thinking of you," Inuyasha said, sheathing Tetsusaiga.
"Yes, very good Kagome," Sango agreed. "She might have killed them if it wasn't for you."
"How'd you know?" Shippou asked.
"When she referred to Goro as her little brother, I knew she wasn't a hisa-me. So I took a chance on identifying her as a hotoke," Kagome explained.
The man stood up. "I thank you. I did not realize that it was my daughter till Shiro recognized her."
"Why'd she want to kill you anyway?" Inuyasha asked.
"I had disowned her many years ago. She wished to marry a man from another village. I had a husband picked out for her. She told me that she'd run away without my blessing and marry him anyway. I told her if she did so she'd have no place in my house and would not be apart of this family anymore. She laid upon me a curse that if she died before I did that she come take me to hell." He sighed, looking very old and tired. "The next morning she was gone. I received word that she had married him. I made it known that she had been disowned. Almost immediately I regretted it. She was my only daughter. She had four children, but died while giving birth to her last one."
"We are sorry to here that," Kagome said. "Yet you did get to make up with her."
"Yes. Almost to late, if it hadn't been with you miko-sama and I am very grateful for that." He bowed. "Please. Stay with my family for as long as you need to. You have done a great service to us."
The group thanked him and agreed.
*~*~*~*
"Now just pull your hand back, and flick your wrist like this," Kameko said demonstrating the movement. "Try it."
Shippou held a dagger in his hand and did his best to copy her. The blade flew through the air to embed itself in a tree below a piece of rope. "I'm never going to get this." He said, pouting.
Kameko laughed. "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. I'm not that great either. I constantly miss. Its only when that I'm not even trying at all that I get the target, or very close to it. My brother on the other hand, well, he's an expert at this. Yet, I think hitting the tree is a very good start. My first time I didn't even come close." She handed him another dagger. "Now, when you're fighting something at close range, this is good to. Often your opponent will not even be expecting you to have one. You can quickly hurt to get away or deal a fatal blow here." She pointed to key points on her body.
The kitsune held the dagger in his hand. "How will I practice that?"
Kameko shrugged. "Uh. Try a scarecrow or something that has stuffing in it. Like I said, I'm no real expert on them. I only brought them just in case." Then she handed him a knife.
"I know how to use this," Shippou said proudly.
A thought came to her mind then. "Good. Ok, uh, think of a dagger kind of like a mini-knife." It was the only thing she could think of. They did look similar after all.
Shippou smiled. "Hey, yeah. Thanks, Kameko!" He ran to the tree and pulled out the dagger. She had given him all her daggers and one of her knives. They had found a leather sash to hold the daggers. Shippou had found something to attach the knife and its case to. "I'm going to go find something to practice on." He scampered back towards the village.
Kameko smiled. He was so adorable! She sighed and sat down. Out of her bag she pulled her other knife. From nearby she grabbed a six-foot long spear that she had obtained from one of the local fishermen. Earlier she and Shippou had gone looking for feathers. These had been added to end of the spear. With the knife she began to make a dimple at the end of the spear.
When she was done she pulled out the sixteen-inch long atlatl. At the end of it was a hook made out of horn that fitted into the dimple. She laid the spear parallel to the atlatl, and at the handle end she held in place with her fore finger and thumb of her right hand. There was a rest for the spear there. She stood and backed a little away from the tree with the rope. Now, this was her weapon of choice. "Aw, yeah," she said in English.
Kameko drew her arm back pointed the spear at the tree, stepped into the direction of the shot, while the end of the atlatl swung around in a flipping motion, pushing the dart forward. As soon as the cast is started, the spear was released by her fingers holding it, while the atlatl itself is retained in her right hand. Centrifugal force kept the spur in contact with the knock dimple. Then, it was simply a matter of following through until the spear left the atlatl.
The spear flew through the air. It went into the tree right where the rope was, cutting through it so it fell to the ground. She gave a smiled. "Wicked," she said still in English. She just loved this damn thing! She repeated this about a dozen more times.
On her last throw she stepped on a rock, throwing her off balanced and making the spear go to the right of the tree. It disappeared into the forest. "Damn," she cursed, still using English. Whenever no one was around she talked to herself in English.
She sat down her atlatl next to her bag and went into the forest. At this moment she had only one spear, and didn't really want to loose it right now.
The plants were thick, and hard to maneuver in. She was glad she was wearing pants. Her foot nearly slipped out of her Converse (chucks) a couple of times when they got tangled in the plants. "Where is it?" she asked herself, looking for it. She didn't think it went that far into the forest.
There was a rustling to her left. She saw a pointed stick pop into view and move away from her. 'Wait,' she thought, 'that's my spear!'
"Come back here!" she said in English first, then repeated it again in Japanese. Whoever had it began to run. "Hold on! That's mine!" She ran after them. It giggled. "This isn't funny!" she called to them. First vengeful spirits, now stealing midgets. Could this day get any worse?
After a while she caught up to it because it apparently tripped over something. Kameko was glad the pointed end was up in the air, and didn't hurt the thieving thing.
When she came close enough she found neither midget nor thing. It was a little girl. A short ponytail was sticking out of the side of her head.
"Are you ok?" she asked, helping her up.
The little girl look frightened for a moment. When Kameko made no move to show she'd harm the girl she smiled and nodded her head.
"Can I have my spear back?" she asked the little girl. She was still clutching it tightly.
She shook her head and gave Kameko a big grin.
Kameko took in a deep breath. She did not have time for this. "Please, I need it."
Again the girl shook her head again. This girl was driving a hard bargain.
Kameko checked her pockets to see if she hand anything to trade for the spear. In her back pocket she found some fade blue and purple ribbon. Mostly likely it was left over from something and had been washed numerous times.
She held them out for the little girl to look at. The blue was rather simple. The purple had little hoops along the sides. "How about I trade you these for that spear?" she asked.
The little girl's eyes locked onto them. Her eyes lit up and she nodded. Silently she pointed to the ponytail on the side of her head.
"You want me to put one on there?" Kameko asked. The little girl nodded. "Pick which one then." She pointed to the blue one. Kameko smiled and tied around her ponytail into a bow. The girl beamed at her. "Do you want this one tied on to it also?" Kameko asked and she shook her head no. The little girl handed her spear back. "Thank you very much," she said to the little girl with a smile.
"Rin! Rin!" came a croaking voice. "Rin, Master isn't please when you run off like this. Rin!"
The little girl, presumably Rin, smiled at Kameko and ran off toward the voice. Before she completely disappeared, she turned around and waved.
Kameko watched her go and waved back. She turned around and began to head back to the tree and her things.
"Japan has some strange things," she said to herself, English again.
When she arrived back Sango was there wanting to know how this weapon of Kameko's worked. Kameko gladly showed her and even let her try it out.
"This is very efficient," Sango said, after her attempt to use it. She had aimed straight, but it went a little too high. "It allows the a person to throw longer, but use little of their energy or power. Your people are smart in inventing this."
"Yeah, I guess. It was actually used through out the world, developed at different times in different areas. I like it. Its my favorite."
Sango nodded and after a few more tries they went back to the village.
A/N: Hello! Thanx Aaroyle (#3) and TheWraith (yeah, I picked up on that too. Thanx!). Ok. Hotoke is a spirit of the dead in Japan. I tried to explain what an atlatl is and how it is used in this story. I actually made a little page concerning it. Go to my profile for the link. I put it as my homepage. Chap. 11 isn't done yet. Hope to get it done soon though.