Woops, that was a Long Chapter. Again. Sorry. THANK YOU REVIEWERS! YOU MAKE MY LIFE MUY BIEN! Ah… I love you all for coming back especially. Okay, this chapter also has major revisions. This time they ARE major, seeing as this was the offending chapter. Bad chapter! spanks Oh now I feel bad. Poor chapter. Here's some pocky.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha's dog collar says "Property of Takahashi" on it. K?
I fixed the names because they were confusing people to have them all start with M. That was me when I didn't know any Japanese names. :-o
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CHAPTER 6
I hurt her. Like a demon.
"Oh mi god! Listen! She must have cut herself on Koharu-san's surgery tools!" came a woman's voice.
"No, wait! No! Don't you remember…she brought that hanyou– the creature is in there!"
There were gasps from outside. Four women came bursting into the hut.
They stared. They took in the sight for two endless seconds.
"MY BABY!" screamed a woman. "MY GOD, MY BABY!"
She gathered the little girl into her arms. The child fainted.
"OMIGOD ITS DEAD! KAMI ABOVE MY CHILD IS DEAD!"
"No, it's just fainted–"
"DEAD! He killed Miyo, my Miyo-chan!" the mother shrieked hysterically, pointing at Inuyasha with a shaking hand. Tears splashed from the mother's eyes as she cradled the child. Blood was staining both humans' kimonos.
That mother, with her injured child…
Inuyasha could take it no more. He leaned back his head and howled, a pure cry of distress. Did the Inuyasha of back-then suddenly what decades of loss and isolation his future would hold? Did he realize that he had crossed a line, and could never come back? Did he realize that the delicate fates had tipped their scales against him?
He didn't realize. But it was as though he did… The howl did. It mourned, it cried, it rang throughout the whole village…bringing every human soul running to the healer's hut.
Trapped! I'm trapped!
Inuyasha panicked. The women's screams brought men with their axes from chopping wood, and some grabbed pitchforks that leaned on barns, and a few grabbed bows and quivers of arrows.
Standing all around now were men, looking astonished and frightened, holding tools in their hands. A few women behind them peered between their shoulders, and gasped at the sight.
"It maimed my child!" sobbed the woman, rocking Miyo in her arms.
"My firstborn!" yelped a young man. "My firstborn and only child!" His gaze hardened. "Kill the demon!"
They want to kill me.
Tomo's voice came back to him. All monsters, all of them…
Youkai souls are formless. They are simply empty monsters. But humans, humans have souls, and humans are sacred to all things good. Yes, he thought. And it's good to kill youkai. But I'm not a youkai!
A pitchfork was suddenly zooming towards his head. He leapt aside, almost in a daze.
"Someone get Koharu-sama!" shouted an older man, who was stabbing out at Inuyasha with his pitchfork. "She has demon-exorcism powder! Ginto, get her now!"
A man raced off, dashing between the huts, calling "Koharu-sama! Koharu-sama!"
Inuyasha was all at once standing in the middle of a large, hostile, armed ring. He looked at the grim faces around him. None looked very afraid, though only the little girl's father seemed to be eager to drive his hatchet deep into Inuyasha's body.
They're not afraid of me.
I can explain! he wanted to shout. I can explain!
But would they listen to him? Would they? Why would anyone listen? "Wait! I can–"
A scythe swept down where his head had been a moment before.
"Stop!" Inuyasha shouted. They did, for a moment. Looking at him, they tensed, sharing nervous glances. "It looks like a young boy to me," grunted a middle-aged man with a shepherd's staff in his hand.
"Fool!" cried the father of Miyo-chan. "Are your eyes but stones in your head? Look at those fangs, claws, his ears! You old jiji! That thing is a demon!"
"No demon," said a strong, emphatic voice. Koharu-sama had appeared, her red and white kimono blowing in the abrupt wind. She gazed at Inuyasha, and turned her gaze to the bloody child and mother. "Miyo-chan," whispered Koharu, eyes widening. Her eyes darted from the torn hand of the little girl to Inuyasha's claws.
Bloodstained.
"You…" she whispered.
"No," Inuyasha tried to say. "No, it's not what you think…"
"You…you demon!" she cried. Her eyes were wide, horrified.
"No–"
Out of her white haori-top's pocket came a small glass bottle of white powder.
Inuyasha recognized that powder…Buru's father gave it to him…good against demons.
"You–" he snarled.
"Demon, begone!" she cried, tears in her eyes; she smacked him with the powder.
His chest wound began to bubble as the powder hit it. His head went light, his senses swam…
"Ar- Arigato gozaimasu, Koharu-sama!" panted a man.
"Keh!" snorted Inuyasha. He struggled with all his might against the powder, powder he'd come only briefly in contact with once before, long ago… "I'm too strong for you!" he snarled. Adrenaline coursed through him, and the wound on his chest was only a dull sting. "Keep away from me– or I'll do that–" he pointed to Miyo, who was still crying weakly. Inuyasha's own knees were shaking, but he hid that as well as he could.
Scare them….keep them at a distance…
"He's a hanyou," cried Koharu, eyes blazing. "There! Your secret is known, hanyou! He's not true demon. He can be killed!" She gritted her teeth, and her eyes hardened. "No demon," she repeated, and her voice was as cold as the blade of a sword, "but a hanyou!"
There were muted gasps from the men, and a few women shuddered and made the sign against evil.
Inuyasha slowly looked up to meet Koharu's eyes. They were blazing, both with pity and with anger. "You, half-breed. You have harmed a human. You must never return here."
"An accident," he cried, finding his voice at last. "I didn't mean–"
"You have transgressed a barrier–" she said, controlling her temper, but Miyo-chan's father burst in.
"It's in the nature of all things with demon blood to kill," he roared. "Half the blood that flows in that thing is pure demon! We must kill it! Now that it has known blood, it will return to claim more!"
Instantly the air changed: men gripped their weapons more firmly, subtly shifting to protect the women and the sobbing mother and daughter. The young man stepped firmly between Inuyasha and his bloodied wife.
A man spat. "A hanyou, eh?" he said. Revulsion crawled over his features. Women shuddered again, and many exchanged unreadable looks.
The healer Koharu looked calmer now. She said softly, "Flee, hanyou. Or there will be no tomorrow." She stepped forward to take the arm of the crying mother and her whimpering, unconscious Miyo. She led them gently but quickly away, and the men let them go.
There would be no help this time. Not from Sesshomaru, or from Koharu, or from Oka-san. No help. I can do it. I did it with Otoshiana, right? But this wasn't the same. They were humans. He couldn't, just couldn't, slice them apart and be done with it. These weren't demons. Only humans, human humans.
When the men turned back to Inuyasha, their faces were harder than stone. "You women, leave now," ordered a gruff farmer, hoe still in hand. "Leave so that the men may take care of this matter. Go!" They scattered.
Before long, the dirt wayside was empty but for Inuyasha and twenty men.
Their strength of numbers would be his end.
I can't let them–
They sprang for him.
He dodged this way, twisting to avoid the deadly prongs of a pitchfork, leaping over the swish of a blade, trying to find a way out of the mass of human bodies. He couldn't get out! Couldn't get to freedom, freedom, where was the sky? All he could see were humans and their weapons.
Things became a blur. First one pitchfork, then a knife, found his flesh. Blur, blur, blur. He could hardly think. The dust was choking him. The sound was hurting his ears. And a stinging wound, blood on the front of his haori. Old wounds opened, and Inuyasha felt himself getting weaker. No! he cried inside. Run run run run! His brain screamed. They were in the way!
He launched himself at a part of the wall of men surrounding him, and knocked solidly into their bodies. They fell back, yelling. I've got to scare them! Scare them away from me!
"See these?" he shouted, extending his claws. "Get away from me if you know what's good for you! I can do to you what I did to that girl!"
He stood tall and bared his fangs. The men uttered muted gasps.
"You see this?" shouted the girl's father. "Didn't I tell you? His true self's come out now, you weak-minded old fools! Didn't I tell you?"
"You were right, Chouno-san. Look at that! Vicious!" said another man, almost sounding awed.
They weren't scared enough!
If only I was stronger, I could blast my way out of here!
A man ran up with some rusty old spears and swords. "Look what I found!" he shouted excitedly. "Look!"
"Come, take one!" cried the weapons-bringer. "We can do it! It's small and only a hanyou after all."
Inuyasha leapt at the speaker, his brain somewhere far away. Maybe if I…
His claws carefully clamped around the man's throat and sent them both crashing to the ground.
"Help...me!" gasped the man beneath Inuyasha. Inuyasha squeezed harder, and the man fell silent. There was a stunned moment while the villagers assessed the new situation.
Bad move, Inuyasha, he thought grimly as the men, with renewed purpose, began furiously running forward towards him, spears and swords in hand this time.
"Don't come closer! If you want this human to live!" he shouted desperately. He flexed his shining claws on the other hand. He still felt dazed from that powder…
His attackers came to a halt. Stalemate! Yes!
Something whipped across his face, burning him. Small white grains flew into the opened cuts on his body, and he screamed, letting go of the man's throat.
"Ah, Koharu-sama! Arigato gozaimasu!" the released man panted, and welcoming voices greeted Koharu as she for the third time pelted Inuyasha with the stinging white powder. There was fire in her eyes.
"I cannot allow you to harm the villagers in my care!" She suddenly had put the powder away and was holding a bow, an arrow nocked and drawn. Inuyasha felt as though he couldn't move…he couldn't really breathe…She was pointing an arrow at him.
She had thrown that powder at him, again. She was no different than those boys from long ago, in another life. She hated him…he was a hanyou.
Buru's mocking face swam in front of him, challenging.
"Feh!" he shouted, fighting the waves of dizziness. "I told you– I'm too strong for weak youkai powder like that!"
He struggled to his feet, and leapt away as best he could.
Thwunk. An arrow in his left shoulder…
Thwunk! Piercing his chest, driving him backwards, pinning him to a tree. A fierce pain in his heart, physical and spiritual. Kikyo! Kikyo had shot him!
Inuyasha's eyes flew open. His breathing was ragged and panting. He clutched at his chest. An arrow? Was there an arrow there?
No. It was a dream. Only a dream. "Kikyo…" he whispered.
He shut his eyes tightly, willing it all to go away.
Shot. Killed, hated by the first one he'd ever loved besides oka-san. He'd loved Kikyo. I loved her! His heart wailed. She hated me, she killed me!… Damn Naraku to fucking hell! His nails dug into his skin. Damn him…
Inuyasha somehow fought his way past the sword-wielding farmers, away from the blazing-eyed Koharu. There was an arrow in his shoulder, but the pain of that was no greater than anything else.
He fought wildly against all the weapons, but again and again felt a stabbing pain when his movements grew too slow.
If I were stronger, I could just punch them outta the damn way without wounding them. If I were stronger…or a real demon…this fight wouldn't be happening at all…
Abruptly he realized there were no opponents around him anymore. A hazy shadow of men lay behind him, yelling, waving shining metal in the air– but the way was clear. Free!
As he fled, Koharu's shout came to his ears. "Flee, hanyou! Never return– or we'll kill you!"
Then he was away, and running…running, always running…
His legs were moving faster then he thought possible. A riverside…a grassy bank… a mile away, gulping water, and wishing with all his wounded heart that he could cry, was Inuyasha. If only he had an oka-san to run to.
No more.
No more.
And alone.
CHAPTER BREAK
Hey, guys. Thank you SO much reviewers! You make me feel good…thanks Nasedo, Wolfblitz, suga craZie for reviewing chapter 6 already! And jacalac who is my sister. Yeah.
Okay well for this chapter I just want to say, I want to have more of present-day Inuyasha in it. There's gonna be a lot of italics. By the way you all can see the italics right? They are muy importante.