Disclaimer:
Me: ...you mean I could REALLY own INUYASHA?!
Everyone Else: ::stare::
Me: oO Whaaat?
Everyone Else: ::sigh::
Me: Oh, I get it! It's a joke, right?
Everyone Else: ... -- ...
AN: About the infrequent updates...I have excuses 1. My internet comes and goes, taking naps now and then without warning. It's a shame that there is only one person who could wake it up...and it's not me. Anyhow, the little slumbers may last up to a week, depending on how frequently that person checks the computer. 2. Also, because of the breaks in internet accessibility, although I should have time to write new chapters, the internet may be down when I am available, and up while I am unavailable (eg. the Christmas holidays which are actually an excuse for the parents to put us through an early Spring Cleaning --). 3. Whenever I try to substitute words or phrases into a sentence that's already been written, the spacebar, instead of pushing the already-written words farther down...erases them. Oh, the horror. I officially dislike WordPad and any other word processing program that does that now. TT
PS: Changes in the storyline may start appearing now ;).
Chapter Three
Osuwari!!
"HEHEHEHEHEH!!"
Cackling evilly, I launched myself at Mistress Centipede.
Come here, you big fat worm, I thought, as she reared up to her full height.
Mistress Centipede let out an enraged scream and hurtled down towards me, baring her pointy buckteeth all the while. Yellowy spit came flying out from the sides of the hole that used to be her mouth, partly helped by the flopping piece of purple flesh wagging between her jaws. Had I cared to look, I would've noticed that the little cuts on her side-the ones that the human had given her-were slowly, but surely, disappearing.
Not that it would've mattered, anyway.
I flexed my claws again, reveling in the sharp ching of the curved bones sliding against one another. Raised my clawed hands above my head as I came within five feet of the bug. Slashed down with little effort as I poked my fingertips into those bulbous orbs. Felt the flesh split apart, sliding to either side of my claws with ease as I travelled down the writhing length of the squirmy body. Laughed as I watched the halves and bits fall to the earth, still twitching with warmth. Shook the blood off of my hands as I descended to the red-slicked grass. Allowed myself to breathe freely without guarding against the living stink of the insect. Smirked as the old miko and her yuppies stared at the steaming mess of meat.
Oh, had I forgotten to mention them? The miko and her lackeys, I mean.
They had come up as I tried to talk some sense into the human. The elderly miko, fat and looking at least sixty years or older, had shouted at the human to not listen to me. She had said that as the villagers tried to flick some wooden twigs at Mistress Centipede. Then she had added that I was not to be trusted. Stupid human. Stupid, lying, thieving, traitorous humans. They would, after years of companionship and reliability, after gaining your trust and giving you a sense of security, turn their backs on you in the blink of an eye, as if you were nothing to them, as if everything that you had ever gone through and shared and done with them meant nothing, had never meant anything. And for what? Their own gains. They were great actors, humans. They could create an entire life of lies and act it out perfectly, with no one the wiser, drawing you in with their supposed pain and kindness, weaving their false empathy around your heart. And once they had a firm hold of it...they would rip it out, taking what they wanted and leaving nothing behind except for the emptiness, enough memory to hold only one emotion.
Hatred.
Sweet hatred. Reliable, protective, simple hatred. A concept that could never do anything but motivate and give purpose. That would never allow wistful illusions.
Only one human had not fit the above description. Only one had not carried a dagger in her smile...but she was dead now. I had once thought that there was another, but that, too, had turned out to be a lie.
Cold contempt froze inside as I turned towards the humans. After all they'd done, they had the gall to call me untrustworthy. Well, soon it wouldn't matter what they thought of me. Once I became a full demon, I could dispose of them as I pleased. No one would ever dare to lie to me again, human or not.
The smirk became a slow, easy smile as I watched the girl point to a hunk of meat that was still quivering violently. Amused, I looked on as the elderly miko stepped gingerly over the slippery ground to kneel beside the bit of carcass. After a moment, she stood up, holding a brightly glowing, pink ball in her hands. So that was where it had been. I had been wondering why I hadn't been able to see the jewel itself anywhere on the human. If she'd been holding it, with her abilities, it would've fallen out of her grasp easily after Mistress Centipede's first tree-wrapping. So then, where had it been? And when had the bug gotten ahold of it? Mistress Centipede had obviously swallowed the jewel. As I pondered this, I happened to notice the red splotch on the girl's right side...
Ah. So that's what had happened.
My smile turned into a grin as I surveyed my surroundings. Seven villagers, one miko, and a strangely different, but incapable nonetheless, human girl. Even better, she has that wound on her side to slow her down if she tries to run, I thought, as the miko handed the jewel to the surprised-looking girl. No problem.
The girl tried to push the Shikon no Tama back into the old miko's hands. "Why should I take it?" she asked. Why indeed. Humans had no use for the Shikon no Tama. It would be put to far better use in my hands.
"Because you are the one meant to guard the Shikon no Tama," the old miko replied, closing her gnarled old hands around the girls' and the jewel. The girl had a look of astonishment on her face. I agreed with that expression.
Cracking my knuckles, I brought my claws up for the girl to see. "Alright, hand the jewel over, and I might not hurt you," I called out, watching the girl's eyes widen with shock, and then horror. That's it, see the sunlight glinting off of the edges of my pointy little fingernails? If you hand it over now, I might spare you the experience of going through what you saw me do with Mistress Centipede on the ground here. As I glanced down at the ground, I was surprised to see that,except for a little smoke rising from a few blackened spots here and there, there was no trace of the centipede anywhere. I saw the girl's eyes follow mine and widen when they locked onto the little dark patches on the grass, filling with fear and making me want to laugh.
Her mouth opened and started flapping again. She looked like she wanted to say something, but at that moment, the old miko stepped in front of her and told her to run. Raising an eyebrow, I slashed through a tree and hopped onto the stump, brushing off the little twigs the villagers flicked at me. I looked over the miko's head to see the girl stumble as she ran away towards the village,and shook my head. Too easy.
I jumped off the stump, floating over the heads of the villagers, and landed about ten feet behind the miko. Before I'd even hit the ground, I was preparing to jump again. Ahead of me, the girl was still tripping along, breathing as heavily as she had been while running from the bug. A few more jumps, and she was not ahead, but below me.
My hand lifted as I arched my claws. Then, I slashed down.
Golden light flashed as my fingers dug into the ground. Surprised, I looked up to see that the girl was lying face-first in the dirt, avoiding my attack with a foot to spare. Evidently, I had missed, and she had been thrown forward by the blast, therefore narrowly managing to avoid sustaining any injury. Now, she looked back at me with eyes filled with panic. Peeved that I had missed such an easy target, I leapt up as she scrambled to her feet, vowing not to miss again.
A gleeful grin crossed my face as I watched her scurry away towards the bridge leading to the village. There was no way I could miss her now. I raised my hand again, and prepared to-
Out of nowhere, a bunch of glowing beads came towards me, and snapped together to form a ring around my neck.
"What the...?!"
I almost forgot how to land as I dropped to the ground. Managing at the last second to snap into a roll, I tumbled a bit before leaping upright. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the circle of rosary beads and little fangs, fixed together to form a necklace over my chest. After blinking a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things, I reached up and grabbed the thing in both hands. Just a loop of beads, eh? Well then, it shouldn't be too hard to just yank it - apart?
I stared at the necklace incredulously. No. It couldn't be. No way.
I resumed yanking at the thing, pulling it every which way, but to no avail. From the moment I'd seen the pink glow surround the loop when I'd first tried to break it, I'd known that I wouldn't be able to pull it apart. It was held together through the spiritual power of a miko, spellbound to stay together no matter what the force or pressure applied to break the chain. I knew that, but continued to pull anyway. I didn't want to accept - I wouldn't accept - the fact that I was chained to some other authority. There had to be some way out of this, and I was going to find it. There had to be.
"What the hell?!" I exploded, clenching my fingers around the beads in a deathgrip and straining my arms against the pulsing pink glow. Unable to find a release for my frustration in breaking the chain, I snarled again. "BREAK DAMMIT!!"
"Inuyasha, quit barking," came an old, gravelly but infuriatingly satisfied voice from behind me. I spun around to see the fat, old miko lumbering towards me with her village lackeys in tow. She glanced at me, and focussed her eyes on the loop in my hands for a moment, as if making sure it was secure, before turning her eyes towards the girl still lying on the ground. That reminded me - the girl! She still had the jewel! If I could get the jewel, maybe...!
"Kagome, say the word!" the old miko called out. The girl on the ground - Kagome - looked at her, startled, and then mouthed the word, "Word?" With confusion written all over her face, she yelled back, "What word?"
I jumped up, heart pounding, fury pulling back my lips to bare teeth. I didn't know what saying "the word" would do, but judging from the look on the miko's face, it couldn't be to my benefit. No. There was no way I would let her do anything of the sort.
Kagome's eyes widened with fear and panic as my shadow blocked out the sun overhead. I readied my claws.
"Any word will do!" came the grating shout from the riverbank.
Kagome held that desperate look, as she stared up at me, for a moment before realization came to her face, and completely changed her expression.
Oh. No!
I willed myself to fly faster and land before -
"O - OSUWARI!!"
I heard the panicked cry a split instant before something yanked down, hard, on my neck, and sent me crashing face-first into the bridge.
I groaned. What had just happened? My face was mashed in; it felt like that time I had run into a tree while escaping from an oni. I pushed myself up to my knees, shaking my head and trying to block out the noise of birds chirping in my ears. Where had all these birds come from so suddenly? And damn, if it wasn't bright. I could see twinkling specks flying around in my vision as I looked up to see Kagome staring at me with her mouth gaping open.
I glared at her. How had she pulled me down here? I hadn't seen anything coming towards me before being yanked in the neck -
I stopped. Felt around my neck. Closed my hands around the necklace...and struggled not to drown in the horror and dismay.
No. No!
Snarling, I lunged at Kagome, hands reaching out to grab hers, the ones that held the Shikon no Tama, possibly the only thing that could save me now.
She scrambled up, out of my reach, and narrowing her eyes, opened her mouth to utter that dreaded word again.
"Osuwari!"
"Bit - !"
Slam.
My head spun as I lifted it, only to be greeted with more wood as the cursed necklace yanked me down once again.
And so the face-pounding ensued.
After a few more trips to the planks, the old miko finally showed up and called out to Kagome, interrupting her sitting tirade. Although I was grateful for the break, I wasn't giving up yet. While she was distracted by the miko, I managed to crawl a few feet closer to where she stood. My face throbbed, and I was having trouble seeing things in single form, but I could still discern her fist from the rest of her. As I crept closer, I prepared myself to snatch the jewel out of...
...the hand that was suddenly not there.
Where...?
It seemed that she had noticed my advance, and had been pretending to be distracted so as not to alert me to her. Now she was quickly stepping towards the riverbank end of the bridge, glancing warily in my direction as she went. I pouted. Who could have thought that that sitting duck could think of such an escape? Indignation rose up within me, as well as...
What the hell. I was pissed off.
"...should be getting back to the village now." the old miko was saying. What?! Was I no longer a threat to them, that they would just ignore me like this?! A growl escaped my throat as I protested, "HEY, wait right there, you old hag, what do you think you're gonna do with that jewel?! If you don't hand it over now, I'm gonna come over there and -"
I was cut off by a very loud and annoyed-sounding command to sit. This time, however, I did not dive down to meet the planks as usual. Instead...
SPLOOSH.
Icy cold water bit into my skin and face as I belly-flopped into the river from the hole I made in the bridge. Sputtering as I made my way to the surface, I yelled at the humans, but didn't even get past the second word before the current dragged me out of their earshot.
Hmmm. I thought that I'd be able to finish this episode with this chapter, but it seems I'll leave the last part to Chapter Four. This is scary, the fact that I take four chapters just to recount one episode. Should I start leaving out my thoughts in the chapters, to cover more of the story...?
Review Responses!
samy-chan: Lol, you're making my head turn into a tomato with all your compliments! Not that I mind, ahem...well, anyway, thank you for your support, I really appreciate this kind review, and I hope my future chapters will continue to be to your liking! mutter I'd better finish and start reading those stories... . /mutter
inupupluvr: LOL, your review is hilarious, I will certainly be writing more!