Honor-Bound
by Dead of Night
chapter one
Safe Passage
"Houshi-sama!" shouted Sango, her long ponytail whipping in her wake, as Kirara swooped toward the monk running along the branch of the tree.
"Sango!" Miroku shouted back. The next moment he had caught hold of the taijiya's outstretched hand and swung himself up onto Kirara's back behind her. Ahead of them, the river youkai's many heads reared and snapped as Kirara smoothly soared into the sky, just out of the reach of their deadly teeth. One serpentine head arched toward the afternoon sun and let out an earsplitting screech of rage.
Sango met Miroku's eyes; he nodded. The taijiya understood. "Hiraikotsu!"
The boomerang snapped out, spinning faster than the eye could see, and it swiftly tore through three of the creature's necks, thick gray blood spattering everywhere. Before the heads could reattach and heal yet again, Miroku unwound the sealing beads around his hand. "Kazaana!"
The three heads soon vanished, their shrill wailing echoed horribly by the four left on the youkai's bleeding body. Two of the heads spat twin rivers of shimmering acid. Kirara leaped clear of one, but great drops from the other splattered on her and her riders. Kirara hissed and recoiled as the acid burned into her soft underbelly.
"Finally! It's our turn now!" roared Inuyasha, not without glee, arriving at last with Kagome on his back and Shippou clinging to his arm. "Out of the way, you idiots!" Setting down his companions, he unsheathed Tessaiga. As the river youkai strained after the swiftly fleeing demon-cat, Inuyasha drove forward and slashed at one of the scaly necks with the transformed blade. "Oei, you better pay attention to the one that's gonna kill you!"
"The heads reattach!" shouted Miroku as he leaped off the injured cat. The houshi was tightly gripping his arm above the elbow, and his face was pale.
Inuyasha had already seen the deep cut magically heal. He dodged the poison that came flying his way. "Got it!" Behind him rose the noxious smell of melting tree.
"She's worse off than I am," said Miroku through gritted teeth, nodding at Sango as Kagome glanced at him anxiously. The taijiya was white as a sheet, biting her lip and trembling as she peeled off her leg armor.
"I'm just glad it didn't hit Hiraikotsu," she whispered shakily as Kagome knelt down beside her. "I've never seen poison so strong—"
Her words was lost in a tremendous splash as Kirara plunged into the icy river.
"Stop, bouzu!" Inuyasha leaped to place himself directly in front of the monk, who had been unwrapping his sealing beads again. "Take Sango and get into the water!"
"But the heads—" Miroku stopped; his own head had suddenly spun from the burning pain in his arm.
"It's time you little fucker got into the fight!"
For a moment Miroku wondered dizzily just whether Inuyasha wanted him to fight or not; but then a reedy little screech came to his ears.
"Kitsune-bi!"
Blue flame blazed on the freshly severed neck. Miroku hefted a shaky Sango into his arms and ran for the river.
But just as he came to the edge of the bank, a huge pearl-scaled tail whipped out of the foaming water, forcing the monk to leap back into the cover of the forest. Frenzied with pain and frustration, the youkai's long silvery body writhed and thrashed in the roiling water. Mist and droplets splashed into the acid burns on Sango and Miroku's skin, and Miroku nearly dropped the taijiya as he fell to his knees with a choked cry.
"Houshi-sama," hissed Sango, gripping his uninjured arm.
"Piece of shit youkai! You're wasting my fuckin' time! Hijin Kessou!"
The thin blades caught the sunlight with a blood-red glitter and then slashed off the last three heads. Repeating his earlier, successful attack, Inuyasha lobbed Shippou forward. The little kitsune frowned in concentration as he sailed through the air.
"Kitsune-bi!"
The blue fire sparked, and Shippou quickly tossed the feeble flame at the bleeding stumps of youkai necks...
...where it sputtered and died.
"Ack!" Shippou frantically waved his arms as he felt himself start to fall—straight toward a gaping, screeching, sharp-fanged maw.
"Useless little—" Thankfully the wind drowned out the rest of Inuyasha's words as the hanyou plucked the kitsune out of the air, just as the sharp teeth snapped beneath their feet. "Hijin Kessou!" Inuyasha shouted again, and his blades ripped apart the three necks that had just been beginning to fuse with their severed heads.
Darn it! Not for the first time since the fight began, Kagome cursed herself for having run out of arrows. She crouched uncertainly beside her pack, clutching her bow, not for the first time wishing she had an alternative weapon.
"Houriki!" Despite his ebbing strength and the pain that seemed to eat through to the bone, Miroku's ofuda flew straight and true as any miko's arrow. They stuck fast to the three screaming heads—and melted uselessly.
Kirara's angry roar was just echoing through the river canyon when a new voice shouted, "Futae no Kiwami!"
And everyone watched in surprise as the three youkai heads, still floating in midair, suddenly exploded. The next moment, the snakelike body also ripped apart. Miroku bent over Sango, covering them both with his robe. Inuyasha leaped back to shield Kagome and flung his arm across his face against the hail of gory youkai remains.
"Toriatama no baka!" came an annoyed female yell.
Kagome, peeking despite herself past the shelter of Inuyasha's body, gasped.
On the other side of the river, the air shimmered silvery-pink. The rain of bits of youkai bounced harmlessly off the barrier to fall into the river, which ran dark gray with demon blood.
Just inside the protective barrier stood a tall woman in flowing rose-colored robes, her hands raised and her long black hair floating with the waves of her power as she kept up the shield.
A loud splash and a strangled feminine cry told Kagome that Miroku had lost no time in plunging both himself and Sango into the river.
"Are you okay, Inuyasha?" she asked, but hardly expected an answer. The hanyou had left his protective stance for a new one. Inuyasha stood defensively in front of her, his hand resting on Tessaiga in its sheath, staring down a tall young human who looked about as grouchy as Inuyasha usually did.
"That's no way to thank the guy who just saved your lives," said the young man, eyeing Inuyasha warily. He himself stood casually, but light caught on the gauntlets on his hands.
So he was the one, thought Kagome numbly, remembering the sudden attack that finished off the youkai. He must've been moving too fast for me to see.
"He's right, Inuyasha," she said, tugging at the wary hanyou's sleeve. Inuyasha stared—with a trace of grudging respect—at the stranger for another long moment, then with a graceless "Keh" leaped off out of sight among the trees, presumably to see to the taijiya and the monk.
"I'm sorry." Bowing, Kagome found herself blushing before the young fighter—who, she noticed belatedly, was quite handsome. "He's grateful for your help, just like the rest of us, only he has absolutely no clue how to show it..."
"You think I don't hear you, bitch?" came the angry howl from the river.
Kagome clenched her fists. "OSUWARI!"
"AAAARRGGH!" And there was a tremendous splash.
"Insolent hanyou whelp!" rang out a deep feminine voice. Kagome saw the stranger flinch.
"It-t-t-t-t-tai! Not the ears!" came the yelp. The way his voice burbled, Kagome knew she had "sat" him into the river. "I swear, when I get up, youkai bitch..."
"I guess he's met the Megitsune," smirked the young man. He caught Kagome's questioning glance and grinned. After a moment, Kagome grinned back.
"Sanosuke," said the young man, holding out his hand.
"Higurashi Kagome," said Kagome, clasping it, the metal of his gauntlet cool against her fingertips.
"Well met, dog-tamer." Sano picked up her heavy backpack and shouldered it, motioning toward the river. "Now let's see how that pet hanyou of yours is doing."
The story was simple enough, and it was one they had used not a few times before to ease their passage through foreign territory. They were a band of professional youkai exterminators, traveling wherever youkai got notoriously too aggressive, and happily wiping them out in exchange for accommodations and the occasional free meal. Inuyasha never really enjoyed the pretense, but he generally stayed quiet—under Kagome's watchful eye—as Miroku sweetly told the little lies that had bought them acceptance and relative peace from other villagers before in their pursuit of the Shikon shards.
But when Sanosuke casually revealed that he was in fact the little brother of the han's lordship and that he would present them officially at the castle, Kagome saw Inuyasha's amber eyes flare and knew that it wasn't going to be so easy this time.
"Like hell we're going with you!" sniffed Inuyasha, glaring at the young fighter.
"Kagome," whispered Shippou uneasily from his perch in Kagome's arms, tugging at a lock of her hair for attention and glancing over at the kitsune youkai who was still helping bandage Sango's burned leg. The kitsune onna kept at her work quietly, but her pointed ears had pricked at Inuyasha's outburst.
"Inuyasha," said Kagome, laying a hand on his sleeve. If anything, Inuyasha's scowl only deepened.
"The offer is most kind, sire," began Miroku tactfully, managing a deep bow despite his bandaged arm, "but we must admit we lowly travelers are not used to such honors—"
"It's not an offer." Sanosuke's voice had suddenly grown distant and cool. "You enter our han, you play by our rules. And right now, the rules say you meet Kensh—the daimyo—before you do anything else."
Kagome and Miroku exchanged worried glances. Sano made perfect sense, but Inuyasha was often too impatient to be reasonable. The hanyou turned away, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I don't play by any stupid human rules." He nodded toward the others. "We go where we want, how we want, and if anything, we talk to the village headman or whatever little shit we have to deal with. Whoever that daimyo guy is, he can just stuff it up his—"
"Inuyasha!" hissed Kagome, pulling him aside. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Sano seething; she guessed the sharp look the kitsune onna shot him was the only thing keeping him in place. Already Miroku was starting damage control in his most honeyed tones, though the monk's face was terribly flushed and a twitch had begun in his forehead. "We really don't need that kind of attitude right now!"
Inuyasha glowered. "But this arrogant asshole just makes me wanna—"
Shippou pouted. "Inuyasha, if he gets mad and they kick us out of here, and if Megumi-sama gets mad..."
"Keh! Like I'm scared of them! Like you should be scared of them," and Inuyasha's glare was full of reproach.
"Inuyasha." Kagome sighed and lowered her gaze; the hanyou's protectiveness was endearing, but he didn't have the best sense of timing in the world. Kagome cast about for a more effective argument. "If they ban us from this area, we'll never get to look for the shards here."
That did it, as it usually did. Inuyasha's ears twitched her way despite himself. "Shards?"
Kagome nodded.
"As in plural?"
She fixed him with a look. "Now are you coming?"
Inuyasha's growl bloomed deep in his throat, but he quickly swallowed it back. "Feh." Sullenly he looked away. "I'm not sleeping under some human idiot's watch."
Kagome smiled. "You rarely like to sleep indoors anyway. We'll see what we can do."
Meanwhile, a small distance away from them, the youkai woman was just finishing the bandages on Sango's leg. Her clawed hands surprised the taijiya with their nimbleness. "That should do it, Sango-san."
Sango blinked, then wiggled her toes and slowly flexed her leg, astonishment spreading across her pretty features. "Megumi-san!"
The young kitsune onna merely smiled and rose to her feet. "Healing magic has always been the talent of my kin." She reached to help Sango stand. "Your hanyou friend seems to be having a problem."
Sango flushed, glancing over to where Kagome was hastily pacifying the surly hanyou. After all this time traveling with her motley, beloved companions, she hated the idea of apologizing for them, but... "Please forgive him, Megumi-san," she whispered, even more uncomfortable at the—less than strictly polite—name the kitsune youkai had insisted she use. "It hasn't been easy for him..."
"It is never easy for any hanyou," murmured the young woman, and Sango was struck by the quiet sadness in her voice.
As Megumi moved to stand beside Sanosuke, Kagome went to stand beside Miroku, who was running out of placating things to say and feeling distinctly put-upon. "Sorry about that," she said brightly to the annoyed young fighter. "We're going with you, of course."
"I was wondering if she'd have to knock you out," muttered Sano.
"Oh hush. You're just impatient because you're hungry." Megumi plucked two leaves from an overhanging maple.
"Damn right I am. The sun's practically setting already, and those mochi balls were—ulp!"
Sanosuke's indignant words were lost in the rush of wind and Megumi's teasing laughter, as two gigantic maple leaves materialized to lift all of them into the air and speed them toward the daimyo's castle.
"...What does it take to drive it into your thick skull, roosterhead? That creature was poisoned! Because of your recklessness, I had to put up a barrier!"
"Well, excuuuuse me for not looking where the dead bits go while I'm busy saving other people's lives!"
"Don't flatter yourself. You only defeated it because of the gauntlets I gave you!"
"Oh yeah? Well I'd like to see you kick some youkai ass with those dainty little hands of yours!"
Kagome and the others sweatdropped as they discreetly pretended not to listen to the kitsune youkai and the young human fighter bickering behind them.
"They're almost as bad as you and Inuyasha, Kagome," whispered Shippou from Kagome's shoulder.
"Almost?" she squeaked.
But Shippou didn't hear her; he'd already hopped off her shoulder and skittered to the very edge of the flying maple leaf, balancing precariously as only a child could. As Kagome cautiously crept up behind him, he loudly admired the view, the forest beneath them giving way to green, rolling plains, sparkling streams... and then both of them cried out in horror.
The blackened, deserted remains of a large village were strewn across a broad slope that had been scorched clear of grass. The damage must have been recent; the mild scent of burned wood hung low in the air, and flaky ash stirred in their wake as they flew past. A few people here and there were timidly picking through the ruins, wailing and sobbing occasionally breaking the hush that had come over the countryside. On the outskirts of the village, a wide plot of freshly turned earth signified a mass grave.
Kagome whispered a prayer, then looked over to the other flying leaf to see Miroku and Sango's heads similarly bowed. Sanosuke looked angry, while beside him Megumi's eyes was shadowed, her head turned away.
There was little time for further thought, however, because the daimyo's imposing castle soon came into view. As the leaves began to descend, Kagome sensed Inuyasha catch his breath and stiffen behind her. "What is it?"
He scowled. "Barriers all over the place."
As the little party drifted to the ground in the inner courtyard, Kagome gaped in wonder at the vast sprawling gardens, obviously tended with meticulous care. Traditionally peaked roofs capped four storeys of simple but elegant architecture. As Sanosuke helped Megumi down from the flying leaf, Kagome, her wide eyes drinking in all the new sights, saw two figures appear in the soaring arch that was the central entryway.
The first to approach them was a slightly built young man, much shorter than Sanosuke and so delicately attractive as to be practically beautiful. The dark colors of his noble garb highlighted hair the color of raging fire tied messily at the back of his neck, and eyes that softly glowed violet when he turned and met Kagome's gaze. She felt her cheeks heat and hastily looked at the ground.
The other man, taller even than Sanosuke and heavily armored, was quick to follow the nobleman. His otherwise handsome face was absolutely expressionless as he swept a piercing blue-eyed gaze over the group, lingering longest on Inuyasha—who met his eyes directly, ears flattening back and clawed hand tightening over Tessaiga's hilt—before flicking away.
"Welcome back, Sano," said the first young man as he clasped his brother's hand. "Our gratitude, as always, Megumi-dono." The youkai lady returned his nod with a graceful bow, then Kenshin turned to Inuyasha's group. "And you are...?"
At a gesture from Sanosuke, Miroku made the introductions, his dulcet tones and elegant speech calculated to please. "We would be honored to serve your people if your lordship allows," the monk concluded, making a deep bow that his companions quickly imitated—except for Inuyasha, who stood defiantly straight and met the daimyo's gaze with a hint of rebellion.
For his part, the young lord Himura stared thoughtfully at the hanyou for several moments without speaking. "And what reward have you in mind for your noble efforts, Sir Monk?" he asked finally, his gaze still on Inuyasha.
Miroku bowed again. "Merely safe passage, your lordship. Our crusade against youkai who turn their powers on innocent humans is, one might say, a purely personal one."
"Is it, now." A ghost of a smile curved the young man's lips. This time, he seemed to be addressing Inuyasha directly.
For a moment, the hanyou seemed irresolute—grimly staring back at the young daimyo without a word.
Then, "We got our own reasons," he snapped, folding his arms across his chest again.
Kenshin's cool gaze lingered for just another moment on Inuyasha before moving back to Miroku.
"We appreciate your services, Sir Monk. As our guests, please enjoy the humble hospitality we extend to you and your companions. I see Megumi-dono has already seen to your wounds. I bid you rest and refresh yourselves, and tomorrow morning we shall discuss matters more fully."
And that, Kagome realized belatedly as the young fire-haired daimyo turned abruptly away, was that.
Well, at least there would be hot baths tonight...
tsuzuku