Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale
The Ringenkai Plant
Chapter 2: Enter Naraku's New Plan
Kagome Higurashi had lightly knocked on the edge of the door to old Kaede's home, her fingers tingling with a strange excitement she couldn't quite explain even if she thought she could comprehend it in her subconscious mind. Perhaps it was the fact that she has been longing to see Inuyasha after only spending a day and a half in her present time, or maybe it was just straight out nervousness. Either way, there was no total excuse as she's been totally familiar with the same old scene ever since she's first came to this village, as she had befriended Kaede, the younger sister of the priestess Kikyo.
"Hello, Kaede?" Kagome called, brushing against the cloth that served as a door. She peeked inside and saw the old woman crushing some herbal leaves in a tiny pot. Kaede looked up and greeted Kagome with a friendly smile.
"Come in, child. There's no need to stay out in the cold." Kaede motioned. Grateful and happy to see the usual pleasant attitude of the eyepatch wearing old lady, Kagome walked inside and sat down, the small pain in her legs already subsiding from the long walk she took from the Bone Eater's Well to the village.
Kaede reached over to a small boiling pot that sat to her right, the sweet aroma of the liquid inside filling the air with a rose like scent. "Would you like a cup of rose herbal tea, dear? I was about to have some. Had I expected you earlier I would have made a small snack in advance." Kaede poured some of the warm tea into a freshly cleaned cup and handed it to Kagome.
"Thank you, Kaede." Kagome nodded, raising the cup to her soft lips and taking a small sip. "I wasn't actually expecting to come back so soon myself. I was originally planning to stay in my own time for a week, just to catch up on my school work and stuff. Gee, I just suddenly realized how odd it seemed without being here, if only for a small amount of time." Kagome said, her eyes lowering to the entrail of steam rising up from the cup she held in her hands.
"Ah, Kagome. What you speak of is the probability of reversed homesickness. Perhaps you've been spending so much time here in this era, you are beginning to forget the pleasures and life tendencies of the era you were born in to begin with." Kaede responded, grinding the leaves down to small pieces in the pot. "Inuyasha has expressed a great deal of anger for you leaving so soon during your quest for the shards of the sacred Shikon Jewel, but perhaps he return to his normal arrogant self now you have come back. It seems that his initial attitude is dependent on your presence."
"Normal arrogance in Inuyasha? I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between normal and advanced arrogance when its coming from him." an annoyed Kagome narrowed her eyes.
"As I've said before time and time again, you two must work together if you are to find all the pieces of the jewel." Kaede advised, pouring a medicinal substance into the pot with the crushed leaves.
"I know, I know... but sometimes arguing with Inuyasha seems like a blind date gone terribly wrong." Kagome said. Kagome sighed wistfully and looked out of the open window, seeing a single star pulsing with white energy in the night sky.
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"Kagome!!! You've come back!" Shippo exclaimed happily as he ran towards Kagome.
Kagome smiled and held Shippo once he leapt into her arms. She rubbed his furry head, glad to see him. "Hi, Shippo! Its good to be back! Has everything been going okay since I left?" she asked the fox child.
Shippo stared back up Kagome with wide doe eyes. "No way!!! Inuyasha's been pretty mean lately, and Miroku and Sango practically gave up on trying to take his mind off the current situation. I mean, without you we really haven't been able to go out and search for any new jewel shards." Shippo replied, hopping back down to the ground.
"I know what you mean. But there's no need to worry this time. Now that I've come back, we can restart our quest again. Who knows how many more demons we'll encounter that have any shards, and we definitely don't want to give Naraku a head start." Kagome said, following Shippo towards the encampment in the village where Inuyasha and the others were.
A few minutes later, Kagome and Shippo came to the encampment, and none other than Inuyasha, who was sitting on an upraised rock, was the first to see them. He shrugged with a strong hint of annoyance, his arms folded defiantly as usual. "Well, its about time you came back! What made you change your mind? I thought you said were going to stay in the present time for a few days. I guess you knew your role here was more important that school." Inuyasha asked.
"Grrrrr...... SIT, BOY!" Kagome growled, a strong fire brewing in her brown eyes.
"Huh!?" Inuyasha said, just a moment before the magical beads on his neck glowed with a pinkish energy forced the weight of his body down onto the ground with a heavy blow.
"Gyaaaahhhh!!!" Inuyasha cried out, his legs twitching in the air ever so slightly.
"I guess he ran right into that one." Shippo sighed.
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Many minutes later, Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, Sango, and Kirara were all in a circle together at the encampment. The faint howling of a wolf could be heard in the far distance, marking the appearance of a full moon in the star lit sky. Inuyasha rubbed his head, a big bandage plastered onto his white hair. "Grrrrrrrr... stupid beads! I wish there was a way I could just tear this blasted thing off with my bare hands!" Inuyasha said to himself, tugging at the mystical necklace around his neck that was forcibly placed on him by Kaede when he was first released from the sacred tree by Kagome.
"In any case, its good to have you back, Kagome." Miroku commented, holding his staff. "For the time being we weren't sure what direction to head in next for any shards, or yet any clues that might lead us to Naraku."
"Naraku is always constantly on the move, and we can never pinpoint where his castle may be hidden. For now we didn't have much a choice but to remain around the village until you came back here." Sango said, feeding Kirara a small piece of cooked meat.
"I know, that's another thing that was bothering me. I knew you guys probably wouldn't have gotten far without me so I just figured now wasn't the time to stay home. In addition to that, I missed you guys... and..." Kagome looked over at Inuyasha. "I missed Inuyasha most of all."
"What!?" Inuyasha suddenly turned to Kagome, his face turning a slight shade of red.
"I mean, its not like I was worried about you or anything." Kagome caught herself when she realized what she was saying before. Miroku, Sango, and Shippo couldn't believe their ears either.
"Hey, think nothing of it. You just surprised me, that's all.... um, well... I missed you too... I guess." Inuyasha muttered.
"What? What was that?" Shippo said aloud. Inuyasha punched Shippo in the head.
"Shut up, will you!? Its hard enough as it is to say what I think without the rest of you barging in on our conversations...." Inuyasha said angrily.
"Did... Inuyasha just admit he missed me too!? No... I mean, yeah, I understand he'd missed me because we're friends. But... did he mean it in a bigger sense? No, it couldn't be." Kagome shook her head in frustration. "Oh, forget it! The basic point is, I'm back! Why don't we all set out into the forest now and get an early start on our search? I'd suggest we should move east this time. We've already scoured the south and west at most already." Kagome quickly announced.
"Um... well, I guess we could do that." Miroku said, a sweat drop rolling down the side of his head. Sango and Kirara stood up, the demon exterminator perching her Hiraikotsu, a huge boomerang like weapon, onto her back.
"I'm certainly ready and up to the task." Sango said. Inuyasha nodded and stood up also.
"Good, then its settled! I was already getting bored as hell just sitting around here. I guess you could say I missed a good amount of slicing demons to bloody pieces with my Tetsusaiga. You coming, Miroku? Or do I have to drag your perverted ass along with us? You're the only one still sitting on his lazy butt."
"Alright, alright. Calm down, Inuyasha. I agree to the plan as well." Miroku said, setting down his tea cup and standing up, the jingle from his staff reverbing in his ears. "We can easily cover a good amount of ground, and if we're lucky, we may come across another village before midnight." the amorous monk said.
"We're off on another adventure!" Shippo cheered.
"Don't get your tail in a knot, Shippo. This ain't no fairy tale or anything." Inuyasha said, walking off to lead the gang into the dark forest just up ahead.
Just a few feet up in the air, a lone Saimyoushou, one of Naraku's poison insects, was flying stationary in the air, the images of Inuyasha and his friends in its red eyes. Noting that they appeared to heading in the eastern direction, the ugly looking insect flew off as fast as its wings could carry it.
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The Saimyoushou eventually came upon a single village, where it spotted two middle aged men standing in the plant fields, hacking away at the dirt and pulling up dead plants.
"Did you happen to hear? They say that someone's discovered a funny looking cave not too far away from here." the first man said, a sour expression plastered across his whithered face.
"Yes, I hear that its inhabited by demons in the form of spiders. But I only heard it by word of mouth, but I won't doubt its not true, with all the strange things that's been happening in other places lately." the second man replied, yanking up an old root. "From what I heard this morning, though, is that a group of our neighbors are planning to use torches to throw into that cave to burn anything crawling around in there with more than two legs. Sounds like a fine plan, if you ask me. It'll be sure to prevent any incidents before those so called spider demons start killing innocent victims who happen to wander close to that area. Mainly victims living in this place."
The poison insect collected this conversation and proceeded to fly off, heading to the northwest to Naraku's castle. It wasn't any more than an hour and a half before the insect came into a darkened territory where the skies were colored an ominous purple, and the a light rush of rain came tumbling down into the rotten land. The gigantic structure of Naraku's castle loomed before the insect, as it effortlessly flew into one of the open windows, slowly making its way through the nearly pitch black hallways.
It turned right into the master's room, as it once again remained stationary in front of a slightly see through curtain. On the other side of the curtain sat a man in purple robes with with long black hair. His red eyes were a glow with such an evil demeanor, ten times more evil than the very dark aura surrounding the room. Suddenly, the candlelights became lit with the man's simple motion of the hand, revealing the high decor he sat in the very middle of. Two urns sat on a shelf to his right, with a strange flesh like appendage beating in each one, empowered with evil demonic energy.
"So, you have returned. And what precious and valuable information have you gathered for me?" the man said in the lowest yet indistinguishable volume of voice. His pale skin was only so cold as the winter season itself compared to the way he spoke, as if he hadn't had a single worry in the world to be concerned about. He stared in the opposite direction of the insect from behind the curtain, gazing at the purple skies from where he imagined only the deepest pits of hell itself could create for him to admire. Every time he stared up into the sky, for a few brief moments he could feel a bit of undiscovered nirvana, which is something he longed to experience as far has his human memories could take him back. But something wasn't right. Should he even feel such human emotion? He was not a human at all, by his conceited beliefs. He truly knew that he was a fully empowered demon, only a few steps closer to gaining ultimate power. But at the same time, an internal conflict tore away at his heart and soul like a never ending war between peace and malice.
Who was once thought to be the former handsome lord Kagewaki, the son of a now deceased upper lord after an incident with a group of demon exterminators about a month and a half ago, is now living on as what could be imagined as the epitome of evil itself - a demon created upon the merging of hundreds and hundreds - or even could be considered countless - demons into one body. The poor unfortunate human soul once known as Onigumo, who was previously a bandit burned beyond recognition who had fallen under the care of the priestess Kikyo, now was trapped deep down in the body of the demon known as Naraku. A conniving creature known for causing so much misfortune and pain upon his selected victims for the past 50 years. A creature who now sat in silence in his empty castle, his mind focusing on nothing else on how to eliminate his sworn enemies for good.
The insect relayed the information it had collected earlier to Naraku. "Hmm. A lone cave containing spider demons..... and with Inuyasha and his allies heading in that very same direction, this proves to be quite the coincedence. A coincedence that fate has brung to me in my absolute favor." Naraku said to himself, the candlelight near the wall burning brighter with a burst of orange flame.
Naraku had slowly risen from the floor and walked towards to the candlelight. He opened his palm and formed a strange black sphere, and reached into the orange fire and inserted it inside. Not a moment later did the flame nearly explode in another rush of light. Naraku calmly stared at the fire, the warmth of the flame feeling quite soothing to his body. The flame had turned purple upon his manipulation, and once again he reached into the light and pulled out a fresh solid seed, its contents containing a strong poison substance.
Naraku stared down at the seed in his hand, where his mind had a flash back to his last encounter with Inuyasha and the others. "That young girl..."
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Naraku could only stare in disbelief as he saw nearly his entire body vaporized right before him in a shower of holy light. "What!?!?" Naraku uttered. "There was no possible way she could have detected me from this direction! I was hidden in shadow..."
His wide red eyes were locked on Kagome, who was holding her bow and arrow. A heavy expression of hatred was strewn across Kagome's face, just after witnessing Naraku's despicable attempt to gain Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga and make Kohaku, Sango's younger brother, fight against Sango in a forced battle to the death. Kagome had just fired one of the most powerful sacred arrows directly into Naraku's chest, blowing away his torso, arms, and legs altogether, leaving only his head and the upper right portion of his body intact. Naraku was in a bad disposition, and he was sure that one more shot from Kagome could have finished him off.
But it was one question that kept repeating in his mind over and over again. "That girl... only Kikyo was capable of producing such power in the form of her arrows. So how could this be? How does Kikyo and this girl that tags along with Inuyasha share the exact same holy strength? She can also somehow purify my poisonous gas cloud! I cannot understand this..." Naraku thought, as his saw that his poison gas was being whisked aside into nothingness as he saw Kagome prepare to draw another arrow from her quiver.
"Whatever the case may be, I cannot allow myself to be hit by another one of her arrows again..." Naraku said, as he disappeared in a flash of light, taking his entire castle along with him. The place had disappeared in an illusionary sparkle, fading away into the cloudy night and leaving his enemies behind to fight another day.
"That wasn't too long ago... when that had occurred."
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But now Naraku was fully prepared. Now that he has generated a brand new body, stronger than ever, thanks to the various combined parts of the dead demons in the miasma he had created in a mountain five weeks ago, he hasn't felt any better since. However, the interference with Inuyasha and Kikyo had also rose a few questions that he dared not to ask mentally.
But it didn't matter now. He didn't think much of her at first, but now Naraku had seen Kagome as twice as much as a threat to him, probably as much as Inuyasha himself. Even with his brand new body, another miscalculated direct confrontation with Kagome could very well end his life. He didn't want to take that very chance. Naraku was far smarter than that, and in comparison vastly intelligent to his demon brethren. He knew that if he wanted Kagome dead, then he would have to do it from afar. "And this poison seed will assist me in achieving just that." Naraku smirked to himself, not even laughing. "Hm? What's this?"
Naraku lowered his robes, revealing the jagged spider mark on his back. The scar was faintly beating with a mysterious newfound life. "Blast this cursed mark... no matter how many demons I absorb, it refuses to disappear... When Kikyo dared to refer to me as only half demon when she left my castle before, I did not want to believe her. There is no way that Onigumo could still exist in my body. That part of me should have very well died in the sea of demonic auras combined into one singular entity. But the reason why it still remains on my back, I cannot help but wonder..."
Naraku pulled up his robes and exited the room, the candlelight blowing out as soon as he quietly slid the door shut.
The End of Chapter 2.