Little Miroku and the Wandering Child
Chapter 4
Kirara had landed as soon as Inuyasha came to a stop on the ground. Now, the whole group stood together at the base of the mountain, looking up at it. It definitely was not the tallest of mountains, and it was pretty far away from any villages, so where all the so-called children came from was a mystery to them. The only odd thing about the mountain, was the closer you got to it the more foggy it seemed to become, but still that was nothing too out of the ordinary.
"Well, what's everyone gawkin' at?" Inuyasha finally spoke up. His words were brushed off by the others, but it did motivate them to start walking forward. Miroku led the way, he felt he had to. This was all his fault they had to make a detour from the search for Naraku and the jewel shards.
"Young travelers, please stop."
The group came to a sudden halt when they heard these words. Turning in every which way, Inuyasha looked right at the source of the voice, so the others followed his gaze. An older woman, rather chubby, but giving them a sweet smile, approached them rather quickly. Considering her physical appearance, she moved rather quickly.
"Are you all thinking of venturing up the mountain?" She inquired, looking them all over.
Inuyasha found it odd that no villages were anywhere in site, and off all time for someone to visit the mountain it would be the same time as them. "Yeah," he responded nonetheless.
"Perhaps I should warn you ahead of time, there is an age limit to being able to climb the mountain."
"An age limit?" Sango repeated with a perplexed look on her face, she had not heard that one before.
"Don't worry," Inuyasha said. "If it's a barrier, I've got it covered."
The woman's smile faded a little. She looked around and found Miroku. Although she appeared to speak to all of them, it was clear that she was trying to address only him. "There's a little girl who lives in the mountains. When you find her, could you ask her to come down from up there?"
Behind Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku exchanged confused expressions. It was unclear to them how this woman knew so much, but they did not ask. Inuyasha did not really care, either. He told her they would, though he was not going to make an extra effort to find any girl, and then he took the lead of the group, heading upward.
"That was strange," Kagome commented, looking back but finding no trace of the woman.
"Yeah," Shippo agreed.
Inuyasha stopped abruptly. He looked around them quickly and put his hand on his hilt.
"Inuyasha?" Miroku started.
"A demon," Sango replied, holding Hiraikotsu at the ready.
Miroku was horrified. Inuyasha was always quick to sense a demon, but his monk skills allowed him to be quick at it, also. Nevertheless, there he stood, Inuyasha in front of him at the ready and Sango next to him in a prepared stance. Miroku, however, still did not sense a demon.
Suddenly, from behind a bolder off to the left, a large teal snake-like demon floated out. It soared through the air, moving closer to the group. Kagome grabbed Shippo and the moved out of the way. Inuyasha jumped into the air and pulled out Tetsaiga, holding it out on the way down. However, the snake could tell what Inuyasha was doing, and quickly moved out of the way so that Inuyasha only sliced at the ground where the demon had once hovered.
A quick dodge of the Hiraikotsu, and Sango could not help to admit, "It's fast." Miroku was backing away from the fight. He did not know why, but he was afraid. 'Afraid? I'm never afraid, what am I doing?' He held his shakujo tightly in his grasp. 'I have to do something . . . but . . . it's scary.' He shook his head. It was happening, just what he had been afraid of since yesterday. He was becoming a child, physically and mentally. The child within him was becoming almost too strong to handle.
The demon noticed Miroku, deciphering what to do in the middle of the mountain trail. It gave a hiss and slithered through the air over to him. Sango caught her Hiraikotsu and looked to see where it was going.
"Houshi-sama!" She cried out, attempting to get his attention to see what was going on.
Miroku looked up at her cry, and his eyes became large with fear when he saw the demon coming toward him. He shook all over the place, too afraid to move and no idea what to do.
"What are you doin', ya bouzo?" Inuyasha yelled. When Miroku continued to simply stand there, Inuyasha leapt into the air and sliced the demon in two. It let out one final hiss and evaporated into the morning air.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Inuyasha growled, glaring down at the little monk.
"Don't yell at him, Inuyasha," Sango said softly as she approached the two.
"What is wrong with you?" Inuyasha growled at her. When she did not answer he turned back to Miroku. "Why didn't you tryta suck 'em in or somethin'? Huh?"
Miroku looked down at the ground in shame. He could not allow the group to follow him on this journey to get him back to his normal size anymore. This would end up hurting them too much. He was really going to become a child.
"You're worthless, ya know that?" Inuyasha continued.
There was no way Inuyasha could continue with his rude comments, when a sit command echoed through the misty mountain and Kagome walked over to the group with Shippo on her shoulder, both glaring at Inuyasha for the things he had said.
Sango bent down to be eye-level with Miroku. "Don't listen to him, Houshi-sama. You're just going through a really hard time right now, and . . . "
Miroku looked up at her, and he realized what had been going wrong with all of this. "Sango," he whispered. "I have to go."
"What?" Kagome asked.
That woman had said there was an age limit for the mountain. If a little girl was up in it somewhere, then surely Miroku could travel up there, too. There had to be answers on this mountain somewhere, and he could not plague the group with his presence. They would not be able to follow him anyway.
"I have to go. I must do this myself." He marched past them all, just as Inuyasha picked himself off from the ground. He walked silently, with his head hanging, yet he walked quickly.
Sango stood up. "Houshi-sama, wait." She started to follow him, but after only a few feet realized she could not continue. "There is a barrier to continue climbing the mountain . . . "
Kagome looked over to Shippo. "Shippo, follow Miroku-sama until we can meet up with him, please."
"Okay, Kagome," Shippo said as he hopped off her shoulder and ran to catch up with Miroku, passing Sango by with ease.
After a moment, Inuyasha felt two sets of angry eyes on him. "What did I do now?"
"Miroku, wait," Shippo called. He ran on all four legs to catch up and was almost right next to him now.
Miroku turned to look behind him and sighed. "Shippo, what are you doing? This is too dangerous for you."
Shippo offered a smile. "Don't take what Inuyasha says to heart, he just likes to pick on little kids."
Despite Shippo's attempt to make Miroku feel better, Miroku merely frowned more. "That's the problem, Shippo. I'm not a kid. Everyone keeps treating me like one, though. Inuyasha, Kagome, sadly, even Sango . . . I'm already becoming one, and them treating me like one is not helping it is only making me act like one fast."
Shippo looked around the gray stone that they passed. The fog was becoming lighter and it was easier to see where they were going. He could not think of anything to say. He was not sure an apology would do, so he followed Miroku in silence for a moment.
"Do you know where you're going?" He finally spoke up, as Shippo found it hard to be silent sometimes under tense situations.
Miroku shrugged absent-mindedly. "I'm going to keep following this trail until it leads me to answers."
"Answers. Right. Got it." Shippo then tried to be quiet again and let Miroku think and cool down for a bit.
"I can't believe Inuyasha's attack can't cut through the barrier," Kagome and Sango discussed, sitting on the boulder that the former and Shippo had hidden behind some minutes ago.
Inuyasha glared over at them. "Hey, shut up. I don't see anyone else doing anything."
Kagome ignored him and watched Sango, who was petting Kirara idly. "Are you worried about Miroku-sama, Sango-chan?"
Sango blinked a couple times and glanced at her. "Well, sure. I hope he is doing fine. Shippo, too."
Kagome clasped her hands together and rested them in her lap, looking up at the rising sun and how beautiful the sky was. "I feel bad for him. We have not exactly been treating him like the adult he really is."
Sango did not say anything. Inuyasha sauntered over the group and sat on the ground by them angrily. Kagome smiled at him.
"They'll come back soon," Kagome said with certainty. "We just need to wait."
Shippo was looking around the mountain trail, trying his best to remember how they had gotten where they had, but failing miserably. He wondered if Miroku would be able to find their way back, but he did not bother asking. Suddenly, he saw Miroku come to a stop and Shippo stopped, too. Then he noticed that a very large rock stopped the trail from continuing.
"It must have fallen off a higher portion of the mountain," Miroku explained. He walked over to it casually and asked Shippo to hold his staff. Then he put his hands against the rock and pushed himself off the ground, attempting to climb up it. However, he quickly slid back down.
Miroku glared and tried once again to climb up the rock, once again sliding back down. "It's too big... if I was my normal height it would be a breeze climbing over that thing."
Shippo smiled. He turned into a large bird, the shakujo in his mouth, he grabbed Miroku on the back of his large robes using his talons and flew him over the top, landing a little roughly. When Shippo handed Miroku's staff back to him they exchanged smiles.
"Nice work, Shippo. You don't usually act so quickly."
Shippo looked around. "This place kinda gives me the creeps, it's –" During Shippo's looking around he noticed something behind him. He turned and gave a small cry at the sight. Miroku turned away from the rock to see what frightened Shippo and looked surprised himself.
Floating in the air right in front of them, was another of those snake demons. Miroku refused to let anyone down again and would be certain to get him and Shippo out of this without any injuries. He cradled his staff in his left arm while he undressed his right hand quickly. Shippo peered over at him, shivering, but with interest.
"Don't worry, Shippo," Miroku said soothingly. He pulled the prayer beads away and pointed his hand towards the snake demon. A wind picked up quickly, but only small rocks and sticks laying on the ground were sucked in quickly. It pulled the snake demon in extremely slowly. Shippo looked worried. Miroku looked very angry. His kazaana was much smaller when he was a child.
The snake demon hissed, as though it were angry at having its time wasted. It quickly floated in the air, just out of the kazaana's reach, and headed straight for Miroku over top of him. Miroku realized using Kazaana its state was futile and he quickly wrapped it back up and took his staff back into his hands.
When the snake came down, and became really close to Miroku, Miroku took a swing at it. Yet again, the demon was too quick and it moved out of the way. As it did so, it curved around Miroku until it completely encircled him, and held him tightly. Miroku cried out and attempted to thrash away, but the demon was too strong.
Shippo quivered on the ground, not sure what to do. The demon noticed him and hissed at him, and the made Shippo jump and scream and quickly run to where Inuyasha was. He may have been lost on the way but it was practically an instinct on returning to the others. Fear drove him. As he ran faster and faster, he quickly noticed figures sitting around in a distance, and he cried out Inuyasha's name.
Inuyasha stood up abruptly when he heard it and Shippo ran pass him and right into Kagome's arms, worried he would be next.
"Shippo, what's the matter?" Kagome asked, attempting to sooth the young demon.
"Where' Houshi-sama?" Sango asked with concern.
"One of those demons got him," Shippo cried. "It just, wrapped around him and... I didn't know what to do... and..."
"It's okay," Kagome whispered, patting his back in sympathy.
Inuyasha pulled out his sword. "You need to take us back to where it happened, Shippo." He walked over to the barrier once again and held out his sword. It became red as he slashed through the barrier once again, again nothing happening.
"How is that even possible," he growled.
Sango got up from the rock she had been sitting on. "Maybe Kirara and I can fly overhead and try to find a weakness..."
Inuyasha looked around. "No," he said finally. "I can do this. This ain't different than any other barrier."
"Yeah it is," Shippo replied. "Other barriers are kept up by demons or spiritual people, they are their defense and stuff. This is just a spell that makes it so older people can't pass through."
"Shippo has a point," Sango replied. "If it was a barrier, Inuyasha would have destroyed it by now. It's not, it's just a spell of some sort." Shippo proudly smiled at everyone, finally being acknowledged as smarter than Inuyasha.
"Well, then what are we going to do?" Kagome asked. She saw the worried look on Sango's face an offered her a smile.
"What can we do?" Sango asked. Perhaps it was a rhetorical question, Kagome was not sure.
Inuyasha snorted. "We're getting by this." He held Tetsaiga out again, ready to swing it. "Make no mistake. I'm getting into this mountain if it does take me all day."
Miroku groaned in his sleep. He rolled over onto his side, feeling warmth from the direction. Slowly, he woke up, and his eyes opened. His eyes became really large when he looked about, and he sat up immediately.
In the direction he was looking was a large, rusted pot sitting over top of a small fire. Next to the pot was a little girl, casually stirring the containment of the pot. She was very cute, with long raven black hair tied into a ponytail by a light green bow that matched her little kimono, with its own bow in the back. She looked over at him and gave him a smile at seeing he was awake.
"How was your sleep?" Her voice was just as sweet as one would have thought by the impression her looks gave.
Miroku, however, was confused by her question, because he was certain a demon had gotten him, so how this girl found him he was uncertain. He responded kindly, nevertheless. "Fine, thank you."
She kept smiling at him for a moment, then returned to her stirring, watching herself carefully. He saw her reach down and grab a small bowl, fill it up with the liquids from the pot, and walked over to him.
"Here, try this. I've been working on it for a long time, trying to get it perfect."
He took her offering, and she averted her eyes to look down towards the ground. "Thank you," he said and waited for the bowl to cool. She bowed before him and then returned to the pot, watching him from a distance as she stirred the stew in the pot without paying much attention.
It was not as hot as Miroku expected, no steam came out from the liquid. He took a sip from the side of the bowl and a smile spread across his face at the taste. "I can't believe it. This is... one of my favorite meals."
The girl used the sleeve of her robe to cover her face as she blushed. "Really?"
"Yes," Miroku replied. "You used persimmons... no one ever puts them in, I thought I was the only one."
She girl turned her head from Miroku's view to look down at her pot as she continued stirring. "That is great, we have something in common."
Miroku looked down at his bowl and then back up at her, confused once more. "That's right, I forgot... what is your name? How did you find me?"
She looked up at him shyly. "My name is Hourouiiko. I didn't find you, Miroku-kun. You found me."
Miroku blinked a couple times in surprise. "You... know my name?"
She gave him a big smile. "Please, have some more to eat, you look famished. I worked really hard on making it."
"I've had enough," Inuyasha growled loudly. He held back his sword, anger being sensed by all.
"Inuyasha," Kagome began. "Don't lose your temper, now."
"I ain't sittin' here while Miroku gets eaten by some snake demon," Inuyasha growled. "Ya know why? 'Cuz then it'll be my fault." Kagome smiled at his horrible attempt at hiding his compassion for his friends. What happened next was a little unexpected, though.
"Kaze... no Kizu," Inuyasha yelled angrily, and with one slash the group saw three more of those snake demons appear from hiding spots and evaporate into nothingness.
"Inuyasha?" Sango looked surprised.
"Those were what was making the spell to keep us out," Inuyasha explained. He took a couple steps forward and everyone smiled at seeing he was able to pass through.
"Nice work, Inuyasha," Kagome said cheerfully.
"No time to waste," Sango said. "We have to go find Houshi-sama." She took off in a jog. Inuyasha and Kagome following her.
"Wait for me," Shippo yelled after them. "You don't know the way!" He ran after them as quickly as he could.
End of Chapter 4
A/N: I'm sorry this took so long, guys. I had a creative writing story for class to work on. Thanks for your patience, but I'm not too sure when the next chapter will be out. Thanks for reading!