AW: Hey! I know what you're think, "Why did it take so long to write a damn chapie!" Sorry! T T MY best friend in the whole-wide world got cancer, and I've been busy holding her hand while she's lying on her death bed!
Chapter Six
Impatient
He watched silently as she administered aide. Gentle and slow, her aged hands carefully swabbed and bandaged the tender, kitsune flesh. For hours now, while he watched, the priest in assistance, and the huntress pacing like a helpless mother, the old witch took care to address each and every point of injury. The originally sparse room had become cluttered; used rags, some soaked with blood, lay about them, the fallen petals of a wilting flower.
The woman walked again behind him. She was practically wearing a rent into the floor, always coming close enough to see, but never within her own invisible barrier. Opened and spilled jars of herbs, tonics, and salves, the hushed whispers of those who passed by, and the underlying scent of death had been more than she could take for not the first time. On an exasperated sigh, Sango turned and left.
Once outside she finally unknotted her hands and stretched, the cramps in her back and neck receiving temporary relief. She sighed again and looked around.
Considering all that had happened in the last few hours, the settled existence the village portrayed seemed bland. Ordinary people were going about their lives in the standard way, as though they had not witnessed the rushed arrival of Inu-Yasha close to five hours ago. Just as they knew they'd seen the broken and almost indistinguishable form of the kitsune cub, each person was not acknowledging it. They were in denial, avoiding her gaze as she glanced about. It was almost as bad as being inside.
She moved off the porch, intent on cleaning her hands in Kaede's rain barrel. Movement behind the perspiring tub put her on guard. Sango nimbly side-stepped and crept around.
Nestled behind the barrel, face pressed to the side of the cottage, a child of maybe eight or nine was peering through a mouse hole in the wall. He was dressed in field clothes, dirt and mud ingrown in the cloth, messy hair somewhat arranged in a tail on his crown, and tiny hands spread wide on the outer wall. Sango watched those hands, the fingers drumming silently on the wall, as he watched the proceedings inside.
She could remember her mother's death, when she came across Kohaku doing the same thing. She'd had to tell him. Had to pull him, sobbing and whimpering, away from the wall. He'd said, "If we watch, it'll be okay. Mama told me to always watch, and remember, and everything will be alright..."
She swallowed the lump that came to her throat, trying to push the memory elsewhere. The boy at the wall moved, shifting to his knees, and seemed to get a better view through the hole.
"Hey, Tarou, I think their done," his whispered voice held a hint of excitement. "I hope he's gonna be okay..." he sat back, facing the wall."What'd d'ya think happ…ened..?"
Two wide, shocked, and slightly terrified eyes starred up at her. Sango smiled easily, her first in what felt like an eternity, and came to sit, her back to the wall, next to the child. "He was attacked," she told him.
The child's mouth made an 'o'. "Did the older boys do it?"
What a silly thing to ask, Sango thought and looked at him sideways. He was glancing around the barrel, watching a group of teenage boys where they stood loitering near a fence.
Though the group was composed of what she, as a demon hunter, would consider exceptional stock, there was a sense of fear in the village regarding demons and she doubted any of them would on their own, or in the group, attack a demon; even one as young as Shippo. From her limited knowledge of Inu-Yasha's legacy and Kagome's involvement in it, she figured the people's fear of demons was based on the fact that they had been terrorized by them for so long. That Inu-Yasha, a half-breed, and now Shippo, a full blooded demon, were in and out of the area on such a regular basis, Sango had a feeling that the previous stigma on the demons' presence had lessened. But that had always been with Kagome around.
She focused again on the little boy. "Are you afraid of Shippo?"
"No way!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Shippo's a good demon, but my mama says I can't play with him. She says because of the evil dog, even with the priestess around, he's still dangerous." He started fidgeting and playing in the dirt.
"How does she know?" Sango asked carefully, not wanting to upset the boy by offending his mother's values, but extremely interested in how Inu-Yasha was taken among these people. He'd probably be getting a huge ego boost from all this...
"Well, mama is the youngest of all my aunties, and I'm 'her baby', she says. When she was a little girl they used to tease her, tell her that InuYasha'd come eat her in the night. Without the priestess, mama says he's like pa's rabid dog that we had to drown. That's what all my brothers say too..." He became distracted and jumped to his feet, pointing to the group of teenagers still standing about. "See the one in green? That's one of my older brothers. He said he'd like to kiss the priestess that looking at her makes him feels good..."
Sango's face became a mask of disapproval. She stood next to the boy, also watching the young men. They were glancing from time to time at the hut. Sango focused on the one dressed in green, this child's sibling. He jostled about with one of his buddies, laughing and making obscene gestures with his hands. The others laughed at his words and the entire groups again turned toward Kaede's house.
Their smiles were suddenly erased and she saw more than one straighten, the boy's older brother especially. Expressions of tension and barely contained hate replaced the smiles and carefree attitude of the group. She shifted her attention to the corner of the cottage, easily guessing what was there, blocked from her view, that had caused such a change in the village's atmosphere.
Blissfully unaware, the child at her side began to walk off in the direction of his brother. He was almost to the corner when he turned around, addressing Sango directly. "He's going be okay, right?"
She looked at the boy, then past him to a form dressed in red that came around the corner to stand behind the child. Both watched her, one anticipating her answer with great interest, the other merely wondering what she would say. Sango felt like a mother answering the age old question of where babies come from.
InuYasha'a patience suddenly abandoned him, and the horrid smell of the kid, probably unwashed for close to a week, was getting nauseating. "He's gonna be fine," his strong, irritated voice tore the silence, causing even Sango to flinch.
Had the child been a cat his fur would have stood on end and he'd have most likely leapt a foot in the air. As a mortal boy, though, and a relatively clumsy one at that, he instead froze. Ever so slowly he turned to face the half-demon, his jerky movements giving away the terror that he tried to hard to hide.
Inu-Yasha wanted to scare the kid off, by all the gods, mortals are so annoying, but he kept control. "Kaede said you could come in and see him, being how you've been spying for so long." He crossed his arms and gave the kid a look that dared him to deny it.
Sango became concerned that the poor boy would have heart failure so she stepped up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. The tiny, shaking body immediately positioned itself behind her, a buffer against Inu-Yasha. "Thank you," he whispered, so soft that Sango almost missed it.
With superior demon hearing and a condescending attitude, Inu-Yasha heard the kid just fine. "Go," he commanded the child, though starring hard at Sango. "And tell the priest to come out here. We all three need to talk."
The boy pressed his face into Sango's back, as though hugging her farewell, then bolted. He made a wide circle around Inu-Yasha and could be heard in the hut, mumbling respectfully to Miroku to go outside. It was only a matter of moments later that he joined them next to the barrel.
Unconcerned with the starring match Inu-Yasha and Sango seemed to be occupied in, Miroku went straight for the water. He had rolled up his sleeves at some point this morning, and Shippo's blood had since dried in layers on his arms and the back of his hands. He focused on getting the thick, crimson shell off. Almost the consistency of paint, demon blood tended to remind him of tree sap, thick and sticky. He could imagine that left to harden and age, it could create a stone more spectacular than the most perfect ruby and more devastatingly beautiful than even the Mate Stone. An image of that in his mind brought him back to the situation at hand.
"So, if Sessho-Maru has Kagome, why would he only send you one of the set of stones?" He was talking to Inu-Yasha.
"How do you know Sessho-Maru has Kagome?" Sango squeaked.
"If you'd bothered to say until Shippo woke, you'd have heard him tell us so himself," Inu-Yasha snapped at her, mad that she'd interrupted his train of thought. Miroku's question had been weighing on his mind since the cub had coughed out the name of his half-brother. The Mate Stone was useless to anyone besides that person with the other half. After checking the stone's set and style again, he was positive that the other piece, the one still with Sessho-Maru, was the male half of the set. The necklace was definitely female.
Still washing off, Miroku sighed, "then there's also the whole problem with the Shikon no Tama. He gave you back a piece, but now has the larger share of it with Kagome." It was a confusing mess, all of it.
When Inu-Yasha had come in this morning and shared what he and Kaede had divined about the package and what happened to Kagome and Shippo, the whole situation had seemed somewhat clean-cut, at least in Miroku's mind. They would have just had to follow the trail that the Shikon's powerful aura left. That, plus Inu-Yasha's ability to track Shippo's demon presence, would have led them right to Kagome and the kitsune cub... if the kidnapper had been anyone other than Sessho-Maru.
Finished, Miroku turned around to face his comrades. Sango still looked as though she was ready to break down and cry. Ever since the moment Shippo'd been brought in her appearance had taken on a frayed quality. She was barely containing her emotions, prompting Miroku to approach her, comfort truly the only thing on his mind.
"He'll be okay," he said softly.
She was hugging herself, starring off into space instead of at Inu-Yasha. Without even realizing it, she leaned towards Miroku. He caught her close, resting his chin on the top of her head.
"Feh," Inu-Yasha snorted. The couple before him was causing a lonely ache to fill his chest. Where are you, Kagome? He turned and looked in the general direction of the forest, where he had found Shippo.
"Come on," Miroku said behind him. With one arm around Sango's shoulders, holding her up almost, he gave Inu-Yasha a solid shove in the back, pushing him towards the front of the hut.
The half-demon quasi-stumbled forward. "Watch it, monk!" He growled, turning to face the two mortals, his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga. "Just cause Kagome's not here doesn't mean I can't use this."
Neither impressed nor scared, Sango and Miroku gave him bored, we've-heard-it-all-before looks, and walked by. He followed them to the front of the hut, able to see the hunched form of Kaede as she sat watch over Shippo's bed. That kid from before was still in there too.
"Where do we go from here?" Sango asked.
Inu-Yasha sighed. "We need someone who knows demon magic like the back of his hand. I can find my father's castle, it's getting in that'll be impossible without help." He avoided the gaze Sango threw his way and tried to remember where his mother had mentioned the castle was at. Something about a mountain fortress with eyes to the east.
"What about Toutousai?" Miroku suggested. "Wasn't he the one who crafted Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga for your father? Maybe he'd know."
"Maybe," Inu-Yasha didn't want the monk to know that was probably their best bet. "We'd have to find him though. I don't know where he went off to after fixing the Tetsusaiga for me last time."
Miroku digested this little bit of information then gave Sango's shoulder a squeeze before letting his hand drop suspiciously close behind her. "Since your the only one who can find the castle, Inu-Yasha, you look of it while I head back to the last place we saw Toutousai. Maybe someone there knows were he headed off to. I mean, he's a 200 year-old man riding a three-eyes ox; how hard can it be to find him."
Inu-Yasha shrugged his shoulders, though inwardly relieved to have someone else make the decision. He would have to head into his father's kingdom and bully some of his older acquaintances for the information he sought, but that would be more fun than hanging here and waiting. All in all, maybe a day or two and he would know where the castle was exactly.
"Sounds good to me," was the only warning he gave before taking to the sky, heading west under the noonday sun.
"What about me," Sango asked when Miroku began to move away. "I should help too..."
"Stay here with Shippo. He'd do better to wake up looking at you rather than Kaede." Miroku put a hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him fully.
She met his look, trying not to let herself get too lost in the sad, understanding face he was wearing. It was a gentle expression that would melt her resistance to his advances, would make her weak and careless, and would cause her to stand there letting him inch his hand down to her breast...
"YOU HENTAI!" was the last thing Inu-Yasha heard as he crested the ridge over the forest.