Flowers In The Snow
Chapter 3: Ebony Comb
Inuyasha sniffed the air and growled softly.
"Inuyasha?"
He turned to face Kagome at his side. She had risen from her sleeping bag by the fire and come to join him at the edge of the little cliff on which they rested for the night.
"Blood, Kagome...lots of blood from the South."
"Mm." Kagome nodded, "I can sense a large amount of jyaki out South. It seems the Orochi are up to something...I only hope they are not attacking villages."
Inuyasha sniffed. "It is not like Nibori-Sama to war-monger, he has always been a noble Lord. More likely he is under attack. The Orochi are a peaceful clan, staying quietly in their dark palaces. They do not shed blood unless provoked."
The sun was rising and the monk and taijiya awoke. Miroku and Sango stretched and yawned. Dark clouds loomed towards the South. Such a strong jyaki had not been felt since the days of Naraku.
"Strange," Miroku joined Inuyasha, "The South is usually so peaceful, I wonder what the disturbance could be."
"Keh, as long as it's not that jerk Naraku everything's all right." sniffed Inuyasha. "I'll settle all that battle lust in a minute. It's been too long since a good battle, who'd have known the Orochi would've been involved in one!" He flexed a clawed hand.
"Inuyasha." Kagome's eyes softened. He hadn't changed after all these years. Sango was preparing breakfast and humming to herself; she was thinking about her two children, Miho and Miru, that were safely with Kaede-bachan and Shippou. She and Miroku had settled down to village life quickly, leaving a lot of the youkai-hunting to Inuyasha and Kagome, but in the last month, when news of bloodshed came from the South, her old Taijiya instincts had come to the fore and she insisted that she and Miroku take a trip with Kagome and Inuyasha, just like in the old days. The South had always been safe, the Orochi were a reasonable and noble tribe, there was no reason to imagine this would be a difficult trip. Her heart beat faster with the old thrill of battle, her taijiya insincts came to fore and she had even polished her hiraikotsu specially for the occasion.
Kagome leaned gently onto Inuyasha who put an arm around her. The two had fallen in love over the years, and though Inuyasha could never quite forget about his past lover Kikyou, he had come to realize that it was important to live for the future, and not for that past. Marriage to Kagome was something he planned to do very soon...Kagome had finally finished university and come to stay in the Sengoku Jidai for good.
"Breakfast!" called Sango. Even after having two children, the twenty eight year-old taijiya was still impossibly slim. Her ninja training kept her in shape and she had already started her children on simple ninja routines.
Breakfast was pancakes that Kagome had brought from home. The instant powder was easy to carry around and had only to be mixed with water and fried to produce delicious blueberry pancakes. Miroku and Inuyasha ate three each in quick succession before Sango had even eaten one. Kagome put a slice of pancake to her lips, fully intending to eat it, but suddenly felt sick. The blueberry smell nauseated her and she put it down quickly.
"Something wrong?" Sango asked, through a mouthful of pancake.
Kagome smiled and shook her head. She tried to take another bite of pancake but found she could not.
"Excuse me!" she gulped as she jumped up and ran into a nearby field.
"What's up with her?" Inuyasha flicked an ear.
"I think you'd better see if she's all right," Miroku advised. Kagome was sitting in the field, face to the sun, fanning herself.
"Keh, all right...I never did understand Kagome and her moods."
Sango and Miroku tidied up the camp and watched as Inuyasha sat beside Kagome in the field. Kagome rested her head on the dog demon's shoulder.
"Aren't they sweet!" sighed Sango. "I wish Inuyasha would hurry up and marry Kagome-chan."
Miroku nodded vigorously in agreement, his hand snaking down towards Sango's pert bum. "Ah yes, almost makes me feel like our dating days again..."
SLAP.
Miroku blinked, a red hand mark across his face. "Yes...much like our dating days, Sango my dear."
Inuyasha and Kagome returned to the group. "Gomen, it was just that the great amount of jyaki towards the South must have upset the shikon power in me." Kagome explained. She still looked wan and pale. "It's hard to purify it with all that evil jyaki around."
Sango and Miroku nodded. Kagome had re-absorbed the shikon jewel once it had been taken from Naraku. She now lived as a miko who was the living shikon-no-tama, a purification process that was fool-proof. Large amounts of jyaki could affect her in strange ways, making it more difficult to purify her aura, though never seriously.
"Look!" Miroku pointed to the sky.
The Inu-tachi looked to where he was pointing. A large black cloud moved swiftly to the South.
"Youkai." said Inuyasha, growling softly. "They're attracted by the blood spilt in the South."
"As are we," said Sango. "Who knows how many Youkai will gather there if the Orochi continue to fight."
"Well, let's get going."
Inuyasha raced off with Kagome on his back and the rest of the Inu-tachi followed closely on Kirara, Sango's demon cat. The landscape got steadily rockier as they went, by mid-day, hardly a green lead could be seen.
"Well, we're at the border of the Western lands." Inuyasha stopped and sniffed the air. "Either he's heading the same way we are or he patrols his lands regularly, that bastard."
"Who are you talking about?" Kagome asked.
"That violent, heartless, enormous snob of a half-brother of mine, Sesshoumaru...who else! This place reeks of him. It's the border of his lands."
"His lands?"
Of course, Kagome knew that Inuyasha's father and half-brother were Lords of the Western Land, but she had never really put that thought into reality. Inu-Taishou and Sesshoumaru's lands...they had marked and protected this territory. They patrolled it. This was the border.
"Yes, HIS stinkin' lands!" Inuyasha spat out, "Like that jerk bastard would share power with a hanyou like me. Not likely! Anyway, let him have his lands, if he likes patrolling borders so much, good for him. He can do all the hard work."
"Does Sesshoumaru have an army?" Sango asked curiously.
"Army?" Inuyasha blinked, "Like that proud git would want somebody to fight for him. Always thinks he's the best...no one does a better job than my bastard half-brother."
"Inuyasha...be nice, Sesshoumaru has been helpful to us in the past. He did help us in that last battle with Naraku" Kagome patted Inuyasha soothingly. She knew how the mere thought of his half-brother was enough to send Inuyasha into a frenzy. Every chance they met, Sesshoumaru never forgot to remind him that he was a worthless half-blood, not fit to carry their father's name, and with pathetic sword technique to boot. These confrontations usually ended with the brothers trying to hack each other to pieces with their fearsome swords until Kagome one was badly wounded or greater foes forced the brothers to fight together.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say helpful," sniffed Inuyasha. "More like HATEFUL, or HARMFUL..."
"Inuyasha..."
"Well, well..." Inuyasha's nose perked up for a second, "What do you know? Sesshoumaru still has that human girl around...what's her name...Rin. Her smell is all over this place, together with that stinking Jaken. One would've thought he'd have killed Rin or dumped her in a village by now."
"I don't think Sesshoumaru would do that to Rin," Kagome said gravely. "He always seemed to care greatly for her."
"Keh, it's unbelievable!" Inuyasha said, "One day he'll get tired of her and toss her away like an old shoe."
"You are too cruel, Inuyasha." Sango scolded gently. "I think we all know how much your brother cares for that little girl. The fact that she's still following him ten years on is something, isn't it?"
Inuyasha sulked as they skipped along. They would reach Nibori-sama's palace soon, perhaps in a day or so, personally, Inuyasha had no doubt that Sesshoumaru was heading the same way. His half-brother would never allow such great bloodshed to take place so close to his own borders without investigation.
"Look at this!" Miroku stopped by a hot spring. The corpses of three men lay on the ground, green poison seeping from wounds in their chests. "This poison...It's Sesshoumaru's attack for sure!"
"Humans are nothing to him, he probably just got annoyed with them," Inuyasha said unconcernedly.
"And look, a comb!" Sango picked up a black ebony comb inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold. The teeth of the comb were small and fine. It was obvious to all of them that it was an expensive and beautiful item.
"I never thought Sesshoumaru was so feminine" said Inuyasha. "That's a lady's comb."
"It must be Rin's, baka!" said Kagome, fingering the fine object carefully. In all her days travelling in the Sengoku Jidai, she had rarely seen an artifact as fine as this. Sometimes, when they stayed at a nobleman's house, she had seen princesses having their hair combed by maidservants using combs of this quality. "He must really care about her a lot to give her such a fine comb." she said, voicing all their thoughts.
Inuyasha gave a loud sniff. "Yes, it smells just like that human brat. And, but no..." Inuyasha sniffed again and then went quiet.
"What?" Kagome, Sango and Miroku looked at him curiously.
Inuyasha looked confused. "It smells like the sea, like Chichiue's palace. Sesshoumaru must have brought Rin to the palace."
"The palace?"
Inuyasha nodded. "Chichiue had a huge palace that my mother and I stayed in when I was young...but Sesshoumaru threw me out after my mother died. He said I had to fend for myself, that bastard. He said he would never let another human step into the palace ever again."
"Maybe he simply brought the comb from the palace to give to her?"
Inuyasha shook his head. "The smell is so strong, this long brown hair caught in the tooth..." he plucked it out, "smells like the sea too. Rin must have been living there for a long time...Oy, Kagome, Sango, what's up with you?"
Kagome and Sango had a silly grins on their faces.
"To think..." started Kagome.
"That Sesshoumaru..." said Sango.
"And that little girl..."
"Would be so sweet..."
"KAWAII!" they said in unison.
Inuyasha retched in disgust. His half-brother? KAWAII? That would be the day. Those women clearly had not seen Sesshoumaru for so long they had forgotten what he was really like.
"May I remind you that 'kawaii Sesshoumaru' has tried to kill me on at least 10 occasions, Miroku on three, Sango on two and Kagome on one? That he slaughtered these three hapless shits lying dead by our feet as we talk? That other demons fear him so much they shit their pants when he so much as coughs?" Inuyasha was working himself up to a rage again.
Kagome slipped the comb into her kimono. "We'll return this to Rin when we see her, that little girl will need something to comb her hair. I'm sure she misses her comb."
"Keh!" Inuyasha snatched up Kagome onto his back. "Let's get going...we're wasting time here!"
