AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wow! I got a lot of reviews last time. Thanks!
Jschu25: That's a good question. Heh heh heh. (This is authorspeak for, "Oh crap, I completely forgot about that." But I do have a rational explanation!)
Mizurazame: I suck at reviews too.
Beboper and Darkless Vasion: Thanks...
Shesshy-Slippers: This soon enough for ya?
KurianGirl: Well, you'll just have to wait and see, huh?
Just a quick side note on the ronin leader's surname. Any of you who have read my "Evangelion: Evolution" (plug, plug) will recognize the name. The use was intentional; Kagome isn't the only one with ancestors in the Sengoku Jidai.
As usual, I apologize for any historical errors or errors in medical terms. I will also reiterate that this story is not too fluffy (not in this chapter, anyway), and deals with some mature themes. Don't say I didn't warn ya.
MUSIC DEPARTMENT: For some reason, I really liked listening to "Imhotep" from The Mummy soundtrack for this, and "Time" by the Alan Parsons Project. Just about anything with tension in it, really. For some reason, I get this impression of the "Imperial March" from Star Wars for Naraku. Maybe it's the hidden face and the cape. Ayreon's "The Castle Hall," which I use as a preface quote, is a very eerie, spooky song.
CHAPTER FOUR: DARKNESS FALLS
"Cries from the grave resound in my ears
They hail from beyond my darkest fears
Faces of the past are etched in my brain
The women I've raped, the men I've slain
Shades of the dead are sliding on the wall
Demons dance in the castle hall."
–Ayreon, "The Castle Hall"
The policeman brought Grandfather Higurashi, Souta, and Inuyasha to the hospital. The latter had–rather reluctantly–been forced to give up his fire-rat fur hakama and kimono in favor of more modern clothing. Unfortunately, this meant a pair of old slacks of Grandfather Higurashi's, which were too short, and an old shirt that had once belonged to Kagome's father. Somehow, he crammed his ears under a baseball cap. Souta had offered some of Kagome's socks, but Inuyasha had turned that down with a flat no. Instead, he jammed his bare feet into a pair of Grandfather's sandals, and dared anyone to say anything about it. He had scrubbed off the dirt, grime, and Kagome's blood off his hands and feet, hating to lose her scent. It felt too much like goodbye. He was so adamant about keeping Tetsusaiga that the policeman decided to let him.
They arrived at the hospital almost an hour after the ambulance had, and quickly found Kagome's mother sitting worriedly in a waiting room. Somehow, she kept her composure, though her reddened eyes and a handkerchief twisted in her hands betrayed her worry. "Is Nii-chan okay?" Souta asked immediately, using the traditional form of address in Japanese for an older sister.
Mrs. Higurashi looked down. "Kagome's being operated on," she said quietly. "Her blood pressure was so low when we got here that the doctors felt they had to go in immediately. I've never seen anyone so pale...t-they said she w-was bleeding badly ..." She could hold it back no longer and began sobbing into the handkerchief. Grandfather Higurashi instantly drew his daughter into a hug, his face set in a grim mask, while Souta–who had tried to be brave–also burst into tears with his mother. Inuyasha stood back, unsure of what to do. He hated to see any female cry, but it didn't feel right to add his feeble attempts at comforting people. For all he knew, Kagome's mother blamed him. In some way, he felt she should–he was Kagome's protector, and he had not been there protecting. That got his mind whirling, eventually ending up as it always did–if he had never dared to fall in love with Kikyo and they had never hatched their plan to use the Shikon no Tama for themselves, none of this would have ever happened.
Inuyasha desperately wanted to vent his frustration and anger, so he stomped out of the waiting room, one hand on the hilt of the sword, jammed awkwardly into a belt loop on his jeans. He hated this place already–it was so clean, and yet smelled terrible, of weird chemicals, with an everpresent underlayer of blood and death. The ones dressed in white seemed to be the ones in charge, so he grabbed the nearest one. "Hey, you," he snarled. "Where's Kagome?"
"Excuse me?" the doctor asked, more than a little taken aback at this impolite, ragamuffin young man with silver hair.
"Higurashi Kagome. Where is she?"
"Oh, the girl that was hit by the truck. She's in surgery right now."
Surgery? Inuyasha had to think about that one for a moment, but he puzzled it out. "I want to see her. Right now."
The doctor blinked. Inuyasha's appearance was bad enough, but he had seen plenty of strange young people these days. This teenager, however, carried a sword, had yellow eyes, and his dialect was definitely not Tokyo or even Osaka. "I'm sorry, young man, but that's not possible at the moment."
"Tell me where she is," Inuyasha ordered.
Enough was enough, and the doctor called over one of the largest non-youkai Inuyasha had ever seen. He was dressed in blue, differently from the doctor, but was a foot taller than Inuyasha and built like a sumo wrestler. "May I be of some assistance? We don't want any trouble, do we?" he rumbled, with black eyes on Inuyasha.
Inuyasha gritted his teeth, fingers itching to draw Tetsusaiga and carve his way to Kagome. He stayed his hand, because this was Kagome's world and not his, and committing murder in a public place would not help her. He stared at the huge man for just long enough to establish he wasn't afraid, then spun on one heel and stalked back to the waiting room. "Don't be harsh on him," he heard the doctor tell the big man quietly. "He's concerned with his girlfriend, that's all."
"She's not–" Inuyasha bit his tongue. Every time he said that, he got in trouble. So he just sat down angrily, kicked off the sandals, and sat cross-legged, folding his arms defiantly. The half-comical pose actually brought a small smile to Mrs. Higurashi's face as she looked up. "Are you all right, Inuyasha?" she asked.
"Me?" The question took the hanyou by surprise. "I'm fine. They won't let me see Kagome, that's all." He mumbled a few curses under his breath.
"I mean...physically. You're not wounded?"
"No. Kagome was the only one who got hurt. It was a battle against a youkai."
"The others...the monk, and the little kitsune, and Sango, the demon hunter. Are they all right as well?"
Assuming Naraku hasn't killed them, Inuyasha thought, but he was careful not to let his concern show. "They're fine." He knew he had to get back to his time soon, but he was not about to leave until he made sure Kagome was all right. Miroku and the others would understand; in fact, they probably would demand that he do so. "I-I couldn't get there in time. The youkai struck before I could, and Kagome wouldn't run. She just stood her ground...like she always does..." Inuyasha's hands curled into fists, his claws digging painfully into his palms. Kagome, why do you always stay? Why don't you go hide somewhere, or run away? You're not a fighter, not like Miroku or Sango or me. You're just a girl who belongs in this world, not mine. He warred with himself again. On several occasions, Inuyasha had tried to make Kagome stay in her own time, even to the point of blocking the well. It did no good; she had always found a way to come back, and it pained him to admit that she had always been right to do so.
Mrs. Higurashi partially misunderstood the work of emotions on his face. She got up and crossed over to him, Souta still clinging to her. Inuyasha started in surprise when she put an arm around him and drew him to her. "You poor thing," she said in a whisper. "You blame yourself for this, but it's not your fault. It's not your fault." She caressed his hair gently like a mother would to her son.
She held him there for what felt like an hour to Inuyasha, but must have only been half that time. Another doctor walked in, wearing green. Inuyasha instantly was on his feet, for he smelled Kagome's blood on this man. Only the realization that he too was a healer kept Inuyasha from drawing Tetsusaiga. That, and the look of dread on Mrs. Higurashi's face.
The man faced them and smiled. "Your daughter is going to make it, Mrs. Higurashi."
Tears ran unabashedly down her face and Souta's; both Grandfather Higurashi and Inuyasha had to make conscious efforts not to follow. "When can we see her?" Inuyasha demanded.
"In a little while."
"Why not now?!"
"Because," the doctor said with a very hanyou-like snarl of his own, "we're cleaning her up and dressing her." Inuyasha immediately turned aside; there was no doubt who was alpha here.
"How bad were her injuries?" Grandfather asked.
The doctor consulted a clipboard. "I've seen worse, but not many. Every one of her ribs on her left side were broken, and one punctured a lung. Another sliced open some blood vessels in her abdomen, and there was major internal loss of blood." He looked up. "I have to say this, Mrs. Higurashi–that is one tough little girl you have there. Most people I've seen who lose the amount of blood she did usually die, but she lived. There was blood in her lungs as well, but she didn't choke on it." His smile returned. "I'm glad to see that medical science isn't always exact. Kagome-san wanted to live; that's the only explanation I can come up with." He looked at Inuyasha. "Did you put the bandages around her, sir?"
"Uh, yeah." Actually, Kaede had, but the doctor didn't need to know that.
"You did a fine job. It certainly contributed to not making matters even worse than they were. You should consider a career in medicine." Inuyasha scratched the back of his head; he was much more suited to taking people apart than putting them together.
"Any lasting damage?" Mrs. Higurashi wanted to know.
"None that we can tell. All her other major organs are fine, and we've reinflated her lung and repaired everything inside. She's in good physical shape as well–much better than most teenagers I see in here. She must do a lot of running."
"You could say that," Inuyasha commented. The doctor still smelled concerned, though. "Anything else wrong with her?"
"Physically, no." The doctor hesitated. "The problem is that she sustained a severe concussion. No fracture of her skull and no bleeding–other than some bad bruises–but we are concerned that there might be some neurological damage. If she wakes up in a few hours, then that's no longer a concern. If not, well, we'll have to run a few tests. Still, I'm optimistic."
The Higurashi family–Inuyasha included–let out a breath of relief. The doctor reached into his pocket. "We had to throw away her clothes, of course–they were too bloody. She was wearing this, though. It looks pretty valuable, even if it is cracked pretty badly. Family heirloom, neh?" He held out Kagome's fused ball of Shikon shards, and Inuyasha instantly realized it wasn't just Kagome's force of will that had kept her alive.
At the moment, however, he couldn't have cared less about the Shikon no Tama. Kagome was alive.
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Four hundred years away, the Shikon no Tama was also the last thing on Miroku's mind. Keeping himself and Sango alive was.
The ronin army had remained static for nearly two hours after Inuyasha had carried Kagome off, which Miroku took as a good sign. He was sure that if they had been captured or killed, the villagers would have been made aware of the fact. There was some confusion, which indicated to Miroku that the ronin had not expected Inuyasha's run. He, Sango, and Shippo had given some thought about making their own break for it on Kilala, but there were still too many archers and the ronins' ring was still drawn too tight. Worse, Sango had spotted one or two of the new arquebuses, gunpowder-driven weapons. Miroku had heard rumors of a very powerful youkai being brought down by such a weapon to the west, its head taken off with a single ball of iron, some years ago.
Shippo had hoped that the ronin would just go away, since what Naraku wanted–the Shikon shards–had gotten away with Kagome. Miroku and Sango had shared a look at that, silently agreeing that Naraku was not at the village solely for the shards. He was there to kill them. And when the ronin army started marching, closing in on the village from all sides, they had resorted to the second part of Miroku's plan.
The discipline showed by the ronin had led the monk to believe that these men were not merely bandits or a loose band of hireswords. Miroku hoped that meant that whoever was leading them, then, did not allow his men to rampage through the country, because many samurai realized that the peasantry was the thing that provided the land with rice and footsoldiers. If they did not find their quarry, it was quite possible that the ronin would simply leave in peace, though they would likely ransack the village's rice storage. Food would be scarce for awhile, but the village would survive. There was an equally good chance that the ronin would set fire to the village, murder the men, rape the women, and destroy everything in sight–even employed samurai sworn to their liege lord were known to do that. Legally speaking, a samurai could walk into the village and hack off the head of whomever they pleased, using the excuse that the person had not shown them proper respect. Still, Miroku thought that his idea was better than their other alternatives–their extremely slim chances of escape, or committing to a suicidal last stand.
Instead, when the ronin entered the village, the people acted as if such visits were by no means unusual. The villagers dressed in their best kimonos and waited in the clearing near Kaede's hut. The ronin had expected a fight, but there was none: when the men first came into view, the village bowed deeply to them. Sheepishly, the men returned the bow–though not as deeply–and a messenger was sent back for their officers. The village was quickly occupied, and the clearing surrounded, but there was no fighting.
Miroku and Sango watched all of this through a small crack in the foundation of Kaede's hut. There had been few other places to hide without being spotted, and they both knew that Naraku knew what they looked like; there was no chance of hiding amongst the villagers. They had climbed down into the fire pit and hid there, with planks hastily laid over the top. If the planks were pulled off by searching ronin, Shippo was ready with an illusion of dirt and rocks. It would be no defense if Naraku was the one doing the looking, but they were counting on that either he was not present at all–hiding in the shadows, as he was wont to do–or wouldn't get his own hands dirty. Even youkai such as Kagura had been fooled by Shippo on occasion.
Of course, this meant that the four of them–Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kilala–had to squeeze into a space that would not have comfortably held one. Kaede had dug out the fire pit's sides, creating a basement of sorts where she stored her herbs and rice, otherwise even that would have been impossible. Shippo and Kilala were small enough that they had no problem wedging themselves to one side of the fire pit, leaving Sango and Miroku to share the other. Unfortunately–for Sango, at least–this meant that she had to lie atop Miroku. "I knew that two people could share a space this small," he remarked with a smile, "if one of them was female."
That earned him a slap. "Hentai," she hissed. "That had better be your staff poking me in the leg."
Miroku squinted in the semi-darkness. "It is."
"Lucky for you." The awkward position was already making Sango's limbs cramp up, and she tried to move around for a more comfortable position.
"Could you not squirm around so much?" Miroku asked with what sounded like genuine concern. "I can't concentrate."
Sango instantly stopped moving. She looked out of the crack, not because there was much to see yet, but because that meant she would not be nose-to-nose with the monk. Feeling his breath on her neck was bad enough, and in the position they were in, Sango herself was having trouble concentrating on staying quiet.
Before long, a group of five men rode up and dismounted. Four of them were undeniably samurai, their armor in fine repair and not mismatched like the other men. Two of them flew banners from their backs. The fifth, however, was hidden behind a white cloak and the skull of a baboon. Sango bared her teeth in hatred, wishing she could simply grab the wakizashi at her side, burst through the wooden slats, and take Naraku's head.
One of the samurai walked forward, and both Sango and Miroku instantly realized that this was the ronin army's leader. He looked over the assembled villagers from underneath the brim of his flared helmet, which he tilted back slightly. Sango was surprised: he was a relatively young man. After a cursory scan of the assembly and the huts around the clearing, he looked down at Kaede, who alone did not have her head bent low to the ground. "You are Kaede, the miko of the shrine here?"
She bowed deeply from the waist. "I am." She straightened. "And I have the honor of addressing?" Kaede was taking a chance; commoners did not often question samurai, even ronin. She was relying on her status as a miko and as an elder.
"I am Arashikaze Takashi."
"Lord Arashikaze." Kaede bowed again. "I was not aware that my village commanded such attention as your regiment." She looked pointedly at his kimono, then at the banners that hung limply in the late afternoon heat. "Which lord do you serve?"
"None, at the moment," Arashikaze answered with an edge to his voice. Instantly, Kaede had her head pressed to the ground, hands at either side. "Forgive me, Lord Arashikaze," she asked. "I had assumed..."
"You assume much. I have not yet decided to spare this village." He looked down at her. "Since you seem eager to question me, you will not mind if I do the same."
"Of course not, my lord."
"Good. I am not here because of your village, but only a few of its inhabitants. Specifically, four of them: a houshi, Miroku; a demon exterminator, Sango; a hanyou, Inuyasha; and a young miko, Kagome." Unseen, Shippo rolled his eyes; he had been forgotten again.
"Is there a reward for them, lord?" Kaede asked.
"You might say that. If they are handed over immediately, I will spare your village."
Kaede did not straighten up. "Then we cannot help you, Lord Arashikaze. They were here a few hours ago, but they split up–the hanyou and the miko ran to the east, the other two to the south."
"Ah, I see." He squatted on his haunches. "Lady Kaede, are you not a friend to these four?"
"Yes, Lord Arashikaze. Kagome is my apprentice." She straightened slightly, just enough to glance at Naraku. "They do not live here, though they often come here. It is, after all, the shrine of the Shikon no Tama, which they seek. They often ask me questions and stay the night. Once they sighted your army, they fled, knowing four were no match for your numbers."
Arashikaze pointed to Kaede's hut. "And if I set that hut afire, and then another and another, no villager will step forward to show me where they are hiding, or where they went?"
Kaede trembled, but only said, "No, my lord. They cannot tell you what they do not know, or does not exist. The ones you seek left because of the danger they posed to the village."
"Hmm. Commendable." Arashikaze stood. "And your village is no threat to me or my forces?"
"No, my lord."
"Then explain why six of my men lie dead and another three wounded. Two of them were probably killed by the hanyou's blade, but I do not hold you accountable for that. I do hold you accountable for the arrows that came from this village. From what my advisor tells me–" he motioned to the silent Naraku "–none, save the one named Kagome, are archers. And from what my scouts tell me, she was badly injured fighting a youkai. That leaves you, Lady Kaede."
Kaede straightened up. "My lord, as you can see, I am missing an eye. My arrows are far from accurate. It is true that I once used a bow, and occasionally still do, but it is rarely that I hit my mark. Others do my hunting for me."
"What about defending your shrine?"
"Since the destruction of the Shikon no Tama, there has been no reason to defend it."
"Then I am to assume the kami of the former defender of this shrine, the Lady Kikyo, fired those arrows?" Arashikaze asked derisively. Sango noticed Naraku shift uncomfortably at the mention of her name. Before Kaede could answer, the samurai shook his head. "But that is impossible, since Lady Kikyo is not a kami, but is even now tending to some of my wounded at her lodgements. So it leads me to believe that you are either lying to me, or there is someone here who is not whom they seem." He began walking down the line of the villagers, passing less than three feet from where Miroku and Sango hid. For a long few minutes, the only sound in the clearing was the sound of the samurai's boots. Finally, he stopped in front of a young woman, who had a toddler next to her. The toddler stared unabashedly at Arashikaze, despite his shaking mother's attempts to hold him down. He knelt next to her and smiled at the two-year old boy. He gently lifted the head of the mother, whose tears stained the ground beneath her. "What is your name?" he asked.
"H-Houko," the woman stammered.
"Houko-san. Is the Lady Kaede speaking the truth?"
"Y-yes, milord."
"Are you sure?" With a hiss, he drew his katana. It was a beautiful sword, which shone with a purplish sheen in the sunlight. He did not point it at her or the child, holding it to one side, but the threat was clear.
Sango and Miroku both tensed. The village had agreed as one to keep their silence, even if it meant someone's death, even Kaede's. They all knew the power of the Shikon no Tama, and that Inuyasha's group was the only ones who could be relied upon to get it back from Naraku or others like him. It was one thing to make that promise; it was another to keep it when a katana was a second from chopping through one's neck, or the neck of one's child. Houko could not stifle a sob, but she bit her lip and nodded. "The Lady Kaede tells the truth."
"Why are you crying?"
"Because I fear Lord Arashikaze," Houko said, her voice cracking.
"As well you might."
It was enough. Ayane, who had been kneeling two rows down, suddenly stood and faced Arashikaze. "Lord Arashikaze. It was I who fired the arrows." She faced him defiantly. "Lady Kaede can't tell you because she didn't see me." Ayane pointed to the hill where she, Kaede, and Sango had been hidden. "I fired from there."
Arashikaze was measuring the distance with his eyes. "You are not yet seventeen, and yet you were very accurate."
"I was hoping to be Lady Kaede's apprentice miko until Lady Kagome arrived. I have trained with the bow since I was ten. If Lord Arashikaze wants a demonstration, I will be happy to give him one."
Her defiant tone instantly caused the ronin lounging around to growl, and hands went to swords. One of Arashikaze's retainers stepped forward, his katana coming partially out of its scabbard. Arashikaze himself, however, merely waved them back. "Your name?" he asked.
"Ayane."
"Ayane-san, you know that you invite your death." He walked towards her, his sword still unsheathed.
"Lady Kagome is my friend. I would die for her ten thousand times. And ronin scum killed my father." Ayane spit at Arashikaze's feet. Again, the ronin started forward, and again Arashikaze motioned them back.
"Ayane, you must not do this!" Kaede cried, looking back.
"Did she not fire the arrows then?" Arashikaze countered.
Kaede looked at Ayane. The girl's eyes were both defiant and at peace: she had made her decision. Kaede shook her head. "I do not know," the old miko lied.
"I think she did," Arashikaze said. "And you may have as well, Lady Kaede, despite your missing eye." He pointed to Ayane. "You know what I will do." She nodded. "Stand over there." Ayane did as she was told, standing to one side of the gathering. As Arashikaze faced her, she took off her kimono and set it aside. "Bury me in it," she told Kaede. Then she faced the samurai before her. "Strike cleanly, ronin!"
Arashikaze nodded. His sword moved in a blur. Sango turned away as she heard the sickening sound of a blade slicing through flesh, and the thump of a body. She buried her face in Miroku's chest and tried to fight back her tears. Miroku's arms came up and encircled her back, holding her, and craned his head to see better.
There was a collective gasp from the villagers and, like Sango, some could not hold back their tears. To Miroku's surprise, the ronin leader bowed deeply to the body on the ground before him. He took out a handkerchief and cleaned the blade free of Ayane's blood. Arashikaze then motioned to one of his men. "Wash the head and present it to Lady Kaede for proper burial." He picked up the kimono, walked back to Kaede, and dropped it at her knees. "To honor Lady Ayane's bravery, and because I respect miko–even lying ones–I will spare this village until dawn. Then my men will search it quite thoroughly. If we do not find who we are searching for, or if you turn them over to us, then we will only take enough rice to compensate for my slain men and our time. If we find them ourselves, I will put the village to the sword. My men will be quartered just outside the village, so there is no escape." He sheathed his katana, turned, and mounted up. A minute later, he and his entourage–including Naraku–were gone, and the ronin infantry pulled back to just outside the village, a ring of steel. The villagers stood up and went back to their homes, each bowing towards Ayane's body as they went. Kaede did the same, then walked into her hut. She did not look down at the four beings below her. "Don't be sorry," she said to the open air. "Ayane made her choice. Now we must make ours."
Takashi Arashikaze reined in when they reached the creek. He turned and faced back towards the village, where fires had begun to be lit as night fell. "That was bravery," he remarked. "I was honored."
"You struck very well," Naraku said.
Arashikaze narrowed his eyes at him. "I took no pleasure in it, Lord Naraku."
"I meant no implication that you had, Lord Arashikaze. I was only surprised that you did not take the head of Lady Kaede as well. You know that she was lying–about all of it."
"About the arrows, to be sure. Ayane-san spoke truly, but I believe Lady Kaede supervised her."
"Then why not kill her, as well?"
Arashikaze smiled humorlessly. "Because she is the Lady Kikyo's sister, and it is very bad luck to kill a miko. They can come back to haunt you. Lady Kikyo is tending to my wounded without asking for anything in return; I will not repay her kindness by killing her sister, no matter how much she deserves it."
"Even tomorrow, when we find the houshi and his demon exterminator?"
"If we find them, Lord Naraku. But if we do, I will keep my promise, even as far as mikos are concerned. You may rest assured of that."
"You don't like killing, Lord Arashikaze," Naraku sneered.
"No, I do not, Lord Naraku. As I am in command here and you are merely an advisor from your own liege lord, I would guard my tongue. There is no honor in slaughtering villagers, but you claim to be samurai." With one hand resting on his sword and quite aware his statement could be taken as a threat, Arashikaze spurred his horse and trotted across the creek.
"Fool," Naraku smiled. "Samurai fool. You think that your honor protects you. It weakens you. If you can't be relied upon to do what I wish, then I will find someone who can be." He looked up and saw a white feather floating in the moonlight.