Chapter 8 Author's Note-WIMHS- What I Might Have Said…
2 years previous: School has started already, and I'm LOVIN' IT! But, do not worry- that might just mean more time for me and Narabi no Toki! Haha! I will probably update less quickly by at least half a week.
1 year previous: AGH! Mrs.… Perini… infiltrating…mind! Sixth grade! GAH! Haha! Notice that that was like a word scramble of the first word?
"Presently", when I had started Chapter 8: I'm sorry. School is busier than I thought. We have lots of math homework (4 to 5 pages a night), and many projects, papers, and other things that the teachers like to dump on us. All's going well in my head, though. Well, like usual, I mean. I'm not any crazier or more stupid. I think.
I take that back (so there's me crap for ye). I just noticed that I was staring at this page for a full minute. Without reading it.
Chapter 8- Gladly, Gently, Slyly
After Kagome had finished, Inuyasha stood to lie down on the hay. Kagome threw the blood-caked pieces of cloth to one vacant corner of the room as she stood up to observe the room.
It was smelly, a damp stench, and they were the only ones in there. Even then, Kagome concluded that it couldn't have been them; the time period was very gruesome, with many bandits.
It was a room with a low ceiling, like the one below, so she had to duck to get around.
She decided that she would sleep on the hay as well like Inuyasha when she hit her head on the ceiling, and thus the straw roof, of the prison.
At once there was a blinding light, and the gap in the straw revealed a bright blue sky that caused her to raise her hand above her eyes and squint.
A way to escape.
-
They all sat in a circle, contemplating whether they should escape or not, and what the risks would be.
"Let's all just go up through the damn hole!"
"No, Inuyasha. If all five of us were to go, we would be noticed straight away."
Sango nodded to Miroku's thoughts.
"So who goes," Kagome asked. "And what after that?"
"It would be obvious," Inuyasha said. "Get in the right way and get us all out."
"But then that one would have to go through the castle's main hall. There are many guards there," Sango said, looking nervous. "One would have to be very unnoticeable. Or a formidable fighter."
Miroku suddenly placed his hand lightly on hers to silence her- she blushed- and bent over from his seat, legs under him, cheek pressing against the wood.
"It's so boring, being a prison-keeping soldier!" the earpiece translated.
"There's never any commotion! No…" he gulped something down. "…excitement."
"You tell that to the Lord! Or worse, Onigumo!"
"Haha! You'd like to get him in trouble, wouldn't you? Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
They sounded drunk.
Miroku sat back up. "We could always go down,"
"And then?" the Professor asked tiredly.
"I say we goto Fukui. We can deliver Sango there, and maybe even find that rumored passageway. We could excavate it at home,"
Sango looked confused by this.
Miroku made a mental note that he would explain it later.
"What do you say? Up or down?" In turn, Inuyasha pointed at each of them in the circle.
"Down."
"Down."
"Down."
Miroku smiled, instead of giving an answer, and started stomping around so that the soldiers would open the hatch.
--
"Spray this directly into anyone's face. It was a mixture that some of the scientists back there made. But then we just completely stopped using them, for no reason at all. Sesshoumaru thought that it might be better if we didn't take them in. Anyway, it should knock them out for at least half an hour." Kagura was about to hand one small spray cylinder to each of the three, but then she pulled them back as she turned her back, as if she was about to walk out of the cage to join Hakudoushi, while Kagome, Inuyasha, and Miroku dropped their once-outstretched hands slowly. "Don't tell Sesshoumaru."
They nodded; Inuyasha looking quite disgruntled. She handed the cans to them.
"Welcome to the Sengoku Jidai."
--
Inuyasha touched the can as he thought of defending everyone. Sango and Kagome, especially. Sango, for one, was a big part in this war, and Kagome, well…
He noticed that he was gripping Tessaiga, that he still had it with him, that he was still gripping it tightly.
Aside from everyone else, he sat lazily, as if put off by something. He was just waiting for the action to come to him, the end of Tessaiga's sheath resting on the ground, hilt at his shoulder.
He bolted from his seat as the frighteningly sharp tip of a sword poked through the floor where his leg had been seconds ago.
"Quiet up there!"
As the soldier wiggled the sword out of the little hole it had made, Inuyasha was tempted to pull out Tessaiga and stab it back down at the soldier. But, he thought, they would be doing that soon enough, whether they wanted to or not.
Kagome jumped back when the hatch opened abruptly to admit a head of an armored soldier, his face incredibly red, eyes blinking rapidly, unaware, and drunk.
Inuyasha took Tessaiga up in a sweeping motion and hit the soldier at the neck, where his helmet could not protect him. Having had Tessaiga sheathed, it could not have done much. While the soldier was still blinking, not comprehending, Inuyasha kicked off his helmet. As it rolled to Kagome's feet loudly, Inuyasha became occupied as the man grabbed his foot.
Swiftly, as if in one motion, Inuyasha jumped over him to the other side of the hatch, the man's left arm placed uncomfortable-looking over his right, still gripping Inuyasha's foot, and Inuyasha kicked him down by the shoulders.
The man's grip was lost, and he fell with a loud thud, and a hiccup.
Inuyasha put his hand on the edge of the square hatch and jumped down easily beside the man and kicked him to the side.
Tessaiga was now drawn, and he moved to the side as on soldier came running clumsily towards Inuyasha's left arm from in front of him, swinging his sword around unnecessarily. As running turned to tumbling and front turned to back, Inuyasha slashed at the man's own left arm.
Ending with a jab to the back with Tessaiga's hilt, Inuyasha looked up through the hatch and nodded. Miroku jumped down while a soldier grabbed Inuyasha from behind, attempting to choke him with his arm locked tightly around Inuyasha's neck while Inuyasha dropped Tessaiga.
Thinking quickly, Inuyasha reached to his side while kicking the soldier in the shins, and sprayed the contents of the can into his face so swiftly that Kagome, watching from above, could not catch the movement and was surprised when the soldier suddenly slumped and clattered onto the floor.
Inuyasha's head automatically swiveled, looking over his back at Miroku and the last soldier, now laying face-down on the wood. Miroku stashed away the spray can and went under the hatch to help the rest down.
As Inuyasha sheathed his sword, Kagome picked up a bow from the corner of the room, as well as the two full quivers lying next to it.
"Ready?" Inuyasha asked, cocky.
They nodded in reply.
31: 15: 58
1:00 AM, ITC
"On their own? You mean, just for the moment, right?" Kouga asked.
"Yes."
"And how long is that?" he demanded.
"About nine hours to fill the cave with new air and get the machines back together."
Kouga brushed off shards of glass from his forearms and the back of his neck, blood coming to his hand in little streaks that looked like scratches from a cat.
"And if they try to get back?"
"The machines will reject them, leave them back there," Sesshoumaru replied calmly. "They will not be able to arrive back here until, at most, twenty-four hours have past and we've cleared up there. They only have…" He glanced at a large screen on the wall, "…31 hours left."
-
"How many were injured?"
"Four. None of them were extreme. Glass in the skin, in the eyelids… Nothing compared to what it could have been." Kikyou responded, looking out the window of Naraku's office, watching the ambulances drive off, sirens wailing like crying dogs.
"Look. Look." Naraku said, his back turned to Kikyou as he wrote something on the 2-meter-wide whiteboard behind his desk. She turned, clipboard hugged against her chest.
He had drawn a short-term timeline. Labeling the left end "two weeks previous (March 1)", the right was "present".
"See this? Two weeks ago, nothing was out. And then, then- we had Totosai. His death brought that cop from Nagoya…" he scribbled down "Totosai" and "Nagoya cop" on the board, "…and then Higurashi,"
Scribbling.
"…And of course, his four students. One, who we can't get rid of. Sesshoumaru's keeping him occupied."
Scribbling.
"And then, of course, four technicians going to the hospital, all from ITC,"
Mad scribbling.
His teeth were gritted.
He took a big breath, and then let it out abruptly.
"So. How long until they can get back into the cave?"
"He estimated nine hours…"
"And then we can send more back? Search and rescue?"
Kikyou was silent until she cleared her throat unusually.
"Are you sick? Or is that a no to my question?"
"All the machines were destroyed."
He paused, then: "Really."
They stared at each other blankly.
"Well, I might not be able to control this all," Naraku said, slamming the dry erase marker down on his desk, "But I sure as hell am going to try."
---
"Shut up!" Inuyasha whispered fiercely. He, as well, was controlling "this all".
They walked slowly down a hallway, Inuyasha and Miroku in the front, Kagome in the back.
As Miroku peered around the corner, Inuyasha talked to the rest.
"…to the forest, just to get any soldiers off our back."
The Professor nodded, but he felt that annoying little tug, like something was wrong.
--
"Oi! You!"
"Musashi-people!"
There were yells as their group ran through a small hall that would lead them out, eventually.
"Soldiers! Horses!" a guard yelled to nobody in particular: no soldiers were present in the hall.
There were few in the hall at that time, but, judging from that yell, more were to come.
They ran as quickly as possible, some soldiers who had heard the call following on foot, yelling, swords or spears at the ready.
Eyes glared; children hid behind their mothers or fathers in fright at the scene.
Inuyasha ran as quickly as he possibly could, now beside Kagome, pulling her along the road by the arm, looking over his shoulder at the soldiers every now and then, but they were far; about 10 meters away.
As planned, they ran for the forest. But it would not be easy, with the soldiers behind them.
And then they heard hoof beats: the riders had been sent out.
They entered the forest within seconds, and they parted their ways: Inuyasha and Kagome together in one direction, Miroku, Sango, and the Professor the other. They knew that they would join up again soon.
Inuyasha spoke into the earpiece he had just tapped: "Miroku, turn off your earpiece. Professor, you too."
Static. And then he turned off his own.
"Shh," he warned Kagome; the riders would be there soon enough.
They were at a steady jogging pace when Kagome tripped over a root that had probably been placed there on purpose.
Inuyasha tried to grab her hand or arm, to break her fall, but she ended up on the ground, kneeling.
He kneeled next to her as well, examining the damage: a large scratch on her right palm, and pretty much nothing else, but: "Ow."
"What?"
"My ankle," she said.
"What? Do you want me to carry you or something?"
He regretted his words almost immediately as Kagome's face lit up slightly. Despite the fact that it sounded like the most horrible idea that ever spawned to him, she nodded.
His eyes grew wide in disbelief, and then narrowed with a frown.
Hoof beats.
Yells.
"Argh."
He stood up and walked around in front of her, then knelt again.
Gladly, she put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up.
Gently, at a swift pace, he ran further into the brush.
The horses had entered the forest and slowed to a walk. Inuyasha sped up and put Kagome down when he thought that they had a good enough distance.
Inuyasha stood watch, casually leaning against a tree, arms crossed.
Kagome, meanwhile, crawled under a large bush that was abundant in the forest. Its roots were thin and stuck out at sections in the ground, but its leaves were huge, and, for some reason, furry. It was perfect for Kagome because Inuyasha couldn't see her when he had "lost" her.
"Inuyasha! Get down here!"
Then he saw her, and climbed under the bush, for there was death by beheading or life by embarrassment.
He thought, You choose.
He blushed when he saw how close her face was, and turned his head away, pretending that he had heard the hooves pounding in the dirt.
While looking for the others, Inuyasha found them up a hill nearby, hiding behind separate trees.
Miroku was peering downhill for any sign of the riders. Inuyasha called to him, and when he finally looked after about two minutes, Inuyasha motioned for him to come down the hill.
Miroku nodded; disappeared behind the tree, and emerged again with Sango and the Professor.
Quickly and carefully they came down the hill, always cautious for the soldiers' arrival.
It was silent when they reached the bottom but for the cry of a soldier: "Retreat! Demons!"
There were various yells from many different people, the sad cries of men falling, and the last piercing shots of the soldiers' arrows.
And then Inuyasha saw them: a writhing swarm of bloodthirsty demons of all kinds: mutated birds, trolls, oxen, even unnamable ones resembling snakes that floated easily in midair.
Tessaiga was already out, Kagome's arrow notched, and Miroku's zanbatou ready.
Miroku was fighting a particularly vicious-looking hawk demon while Inuyasha was being pushed farther away by a swarm. Kagome had shot down many, but limped along slowly.
She helped Inuyasha by shooting down the demons in the swarm one by one.
And then the demons turned on Inuyasha, vengeful, and headed straight towards Kagome, who still shot them as they shrieked.
Inuyasha ran as quickly as he possibly could- he was a blur to the Professor- and scooped Kagome up right before the demons hit.
She was on his back yet again, Tessaiga had killed many of the demons, but something was wrong.
Tessaiga was not as it was before. It was pulsing. Inuyasha almost thought that he could see an echoing image of Tessaiga emanating it. Before it was a thin blade with dents and scratches, but immediately it had become a huge one: a little bit less than a shoulder's length wide. At the section where hilt had become blade, there was a large lump of who-knows-what.
All of them at the clearing stared as he ran, Kagome on his back, following the Professor, running from the demons. The same swarm cut after them.
-
Up a pair of stairs, Inuyasha set Kagome down next to the Professor. The ledge was open: leaves consisted of the ground. It must have been a lookout section to the Chinese.
Inuyasha cut through them in many different swings, but soon enough, they all lay dead on the floor.
They had run a considerable distance from Miroku and Sango, so he spoke into the earpiece.
"Miroku?"
There was static; Miroku should have been hearing it as well.
"Inuyasha."
"To Fukui."
They had acted like a school of fish. The shark had come, and they had scattered.
30: 25: 09
"Sango-hime. Please get in. We're going back to Fukui."
"Hai." Sango climbed into the canoe, wrapping her cloak around herself tightly and picked up her skirts.
Miroku got in as well, picked up the oars, and started rowing.
Ishikari-gawa's splashing was the only sound for about ten minutes, until:
"Um, are you married?"
To this Sango only smiled and shook her head.
Miroku sighed gladly; continued rowing.
-
"Lord! We found these at the monastery doors, resting."
Kagome was asleep on Inuyasha's back, but the soldiers pushed Inuyasha and the Professor forward to their lord, and then surrounded them.
They were at the river's edge, standing in front of a lord.
"Mm? Are you from the domain of Musashi?"
Inuyasha paused to think. "Yes."
"What is your business here?"
"We have lost our friends in the forest. The local demons split us up."
"How do I know that you are not spies?"
"Ask Sango," Kagome mumbled against Inuyasha's shoulder.
"Kagome? I'm going to put you down."
"Yeah…" Once he had put her down, she said again more firmly to the lord, "Ask Sango."
At once Inuyasha understood.
He turned away. "Miroku? Miroku."
"Hai, Inuyasha."
"Give your earpiece to Sango. Make her talk."
Inuyasha took out his earpiece and gave it to the lord with two hands.
"Sango-hime," he told him, grinning slightly with reassurance. He pointed to his ear when the lord seemed confused.
-
Miroku said, "Sango-hime, you must speak into this." He pointed to the earpiece. "But… I cannot take it out… So…"
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder slyly, pressing her ear to his.
"Sango?"
"Hai,"
"You know this man, Inuyasha? And those with him?"
She recognized his voice with a smile.
"Hai, chichiue."
Notes: Narabi no Toki Ch. 8: Gladly, Gently, Slyly
Naginata: A staff with a fancy blade at the end.
Musashi's domain: What would now be Tokyo. The soldiers assume that they are from Musashi because they just popped out of nowhere.
Chichiue: Father
2 meters: Roughly six feet
10 meters: Roughly thirty feet
Sengoku Jidai turning into the Sengoku Jidai now?
>>Oh yes.
Demons?
>>Loverly.
Tessaiga?
>>Who-knows-what.
Perverted ways in the canoe?
>>Most definitely.
Kirara?
>>Probably not.
Chichiue?
>>I'm not yours. But he's the lord of Fukui. Thus making Sango "princess".
>>Hey, imagine if it was all like "Luke, I am your chichiue."
And Kohaku?
>>Coming soon.
# of pages?
>>Thirteen, in your face. With a total of three thousand eighty one words. But really, that's not too much.
Review, please.
With gusto.