A TALE FROM THE PAST
by Kittymui-
CHAPTER IX
'W-where am I...?'
'What...happened...?'
His sore body told him that he was alive and awake, but his vision showed him nothing but pure darkness. Slowly, he lifted his hand from the flat surface he was lying on and moved it towards his eyes. 'What's this?' he thought surprised when his hand found something covering his eyes. But as soon as he put a bit more pressure on his fingertips to feel what it was, a shot of pain ran through his head and made him cringe. 'What the hell is wrong with my eyes?'
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps in a distance caught his attention.
Almost immediately, he placed his arm back to where it was before and relaxed. Whoever it was, he knew it would be better to wait until he was in a more advantageous position if he wanted some answers.
A few steps closer, the walking paused and was shortly interrupted by the opening and closing a wooden door.
Patiently, he waited until the footsteps approached him. As soon as the person stopped walking and knelt down next to him, he used all his might to sit up and moved his hands around him. To his luck, he managed to get hold of something that felt like a wrist and without a moment to hesitate, he gave it a rough yank.
Within seconds, he pinned down the person below him. "Tell me! Where am I and what have you done to my eyes?" he demanded, trying to sound threatening but ended up panting. 'Chikusho...I took my current condition too lightly...' he cursed as his body ached even more than before. As a matter of fact, he was barely able to remain in the position he was in.
"A-are you okay...?"
The voice startled him. 'A-a woman...!' he realized and let go of her wrist. But just when he wanted to shift away, a heavy dizziness took over and his arms began to fail to support his upper body. 'Why isn't she moving away!' he groaned inwardly. 'I-I can't...h-hold it...' With the last bit of his strength, he quickly made his body topple to the side in order to save the woman from being squashed by his full weight.
Before he completely lost consciousness, he could faintly hear the same voice frantically calling out to him.
"Hey! Are you okay! Don't fall asleep!"
.-.
Kagome was surprised when the man, whom she thought to be asleep, suddenly sat up the moment she knelt down beside him. Even more shocked was she when she found herself pinned down a few seconds later.
His long untied hair glided over his shoulders and landed on the wooden floor to the left and right of her face. And his long-sleeved brown shirt was still swinging a little from his quick and sudden movement.
"Tell me! Where am I and what have you done to my eyes?"
He was frustrated and angry, she could tell from the way he demanded answers. But as soon as she heard his heavy breathing and saw the countless sweat drops shimmering around the dark cross on his forehead, she couldn't help but worry instead being afraid. "A-are you okay...?" she asked out of concern.
Right after her question, the grip around her wrist disappeared. But Kagome's intention to move away wavered at the sight of his struggling to keep balance. And before she knew it, the man had already fallen to his side next to her.
"Hey! Are you okay! Don't fall asleep!" she shouted at him, but realized that he couldn't hear her anymore.
She carefully moved him back to lie on his back. 'Good...he's still breathing...' she thought as she wiped away the sweat drops on his face with the sleeve of her blue kimono. After he had survived the first night, she was still afraid that he might stay asleep forever since the process of recovery showed no progress. Now that he had finally woken up, the relief she felt made her completely forget that he was actually threatening her a short moment ago.
.-.
"W-water..."
Kagome perked up her head at the sudden request and quickly put a stop on her activities. With a bowl of water in her hand, which she prepared in advance, she made her way towards the young man on the floor.
She lifted his head and shoulders with her free arm and placed the bowl to his dry lips. "It's water, drink it."
In three gulps the bowl was emptied and Kagome placed it on the floor next to her. "More?"
The man shook his head. "Where...am I?" he asked as he tried to sit up.
"You're near the southern borders of the Western Lands," she replied. "Here, let me help you."
She gently shoved him over the floor towards the back wall and withdrew her supporting arm when he was leaning fully against it. As she created a bit more distance between them, she watched how he raised his hand to the thin green cloth that was wound around his head. "About your eyes," she began. "They were red and swollen by the time I found you in the creek. Until now, I have only been cleaning them with clear water to prevent infections, because I have no idea what exactly caused the injury."
"It was a snake..." he told her after a moment of silence. "...a snake spat its venom at me and everything became dark before my eyes...and then I fell..."
'So it was poison after all,' Kagome thought to herself. "Do you recall what kind of snake it was?"
He shook his head. "I was blinded before I even had the chance to...and it was too dark back then."
"I see..." she nodded understandingly. 'Then...he might not...' Halfway the thought, she shook it off of her. "Well, knowing that it's snake poison should be enough to find a cure for it, but in the meantime, you shouldn't open your eyes too often since they are too vulnerable at the moment."
"I understand..." he replied.
.-.
The woman got to her feet and walked away from him. The sound of water that filled the room reminded him of what she said earlier.
'She found me in the creek huh...?' he thought as he slowly began to remember what had happened. 'I didn't fall off that cliff...' he corrected his memories. 'I was pushed...I guess I was lucky to have survived the fall...'
He snapped back into reality when the woman spoke again. "By the way, do you want to eat something?"
Almost at the same time, his stomach softly complained about its emptiness. "Euhm, if it's not too inconvenient..." was his modest answer.
"Of course not! I haven't had breakfast either so it's okay."
"It's morning?" he inquired.
"Yeah, the sun came up a few hours ago."
The notion of time, which he was unable to grasp at the moment, suddenly made him uneasy. "How long have I been sleeping?"
"If I'm not mistaking, you've been sleeping for five days already," she replied. "I thought you might never wake up again."
His body twitched. 'Five days!'
Worry filled his mind as he thought about the four companions, who were still inside the cave back then when they were ambushed. 'If Suikotsu made it back in time...they should be fine...and they're pretty strong...' he comforted himself.
His mind became empty when a nice mouthwatering smell of meat and vegetables filled his nose. 'Haven't smelled something this nice in a long time...' he thought dreamily.
"It's done!"
He could hear her walking over the tmber and kneeling down in front of him.
"Open your mouth."
"W-what?" he reacted surprised.
"How am I supposed to feed you if you don't open your mouth?"
'Feed me?' He was dumbfounded but the woman gave him no chance to argue.
"You can't eat on your own yet, now open up!"
From the pitch in her voice, he knew she was becoming annoyed and finally parted his lips in defeat.
A spoon entered his mouth and a small portion of warm liquid glided over his tongue. 'It's delicious.' he thought and swallowed. Automatically, he parted his lips again and waited for the next spoon.
"Thank you...for saving my life..." he interrupted. "And I'm sorry for what I did earlier."
"You mean yesterday? It's okay, I know how you were probably feeling," she said as she gave him another portion.
But the more soup entered his mouth, the more he thought about his situation. Never since the death of his parents had he felt so helpless before. How can he complete the mission if he can't even eat by himself? With his current handicap, he doubted he could defend himself properly, let alone killing someone as heavily guarded as the princess of the Western Lands.
Being deep in thoughts, he didn't notice that the feeding had ended and that his body was all tensed up. He was completely taken by surprise when a warm hand was placed over his clenched fist.
"You must be tired, you should get some rest."
Her gentle voice somehow calmed him down.
"I'll replace your bandages when you wake up again." While she said that, he felt an arm supporting his shoulder and slowly laying him back down.
'She's right...I should worry about myself before everything...the first thing to do right now is to recover from the injuries...'
With that decided, he relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.
.-.
'How long have I slept?'
Slowly, he drifted out of slumber again while the distant sound of a howling wolf enlightened him about the time of the day.
He didn't notice it before but suddenly he heard someone talking.
"Now that he's woken up, we'll have him leave this place immediately."
'Who's talking...?'
"But he hasn't completely recovered yet!"
It was the voice of the one who saved him.
"It's even more dangerous if he stays. Did you see his wounds? How do we know he's not being pursued by assassins?"
"A reason more we should let him stay! You said yourself that nobody ever comes here!"
A short silence.
"No matter what, I will not send him away nor will I allow you to do so and that's final!"
After that, one of the two individuals stomped back into the room and sat down with a thump not very far away from him. There was no way he could've figured out whether it was the woman of this morning or the other woman she was arguing with, had it not been for the soft 'baka' she muttered.
Inside, he couldn't help but wonder if she would still be willing to defend him and let him stay if he told her what he did for the living. 'Probably not...' he chuckled, not realizing that he had done it aloud.
.-.
'That Sango...how could she possible get the idea in her head to send him away like that!' she fumed inwardly as she sat down on the hard floor. She snapped out of her anger when she caught the soft chuckle coming from behind and suddenly realized that she wasn't alone in the house.
'Great...you just had to stomp into the room, didn't you?' she mentally smacked herself. "G-gomen...did I wake you up?"
"No...I woke up a while ago," he replied.
She should be glad that she hadn't woken him up but the fact that he was already awake made her feel more awkward than before. "Oh...then you overheard..."
"Who was that?" he asked curiously.
Kagome was about to answer but refrained herself just in time. 'Saying that Sango's my guardian would be too conspicuous and might reveal my identity...Even if he isn't dangerous, he's still a stranger...' she warned herself. "I was talking to my older sister back there."
"The both of you live here on your own?"
The question made her hesitant as it reminded her of her dear family back in the fortress. "Our parents were killed when I was 5...it was a sudden attack. My sister protected me and together, we fled to this place. We have lived here ever since..." she said with a sad voice. Although it was a lie, a tiny part of it was still true.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked..." he apologized.
"No, it's okay. I've already gotten used to it now," she told him and decided to change the topic. "I almost forgot. I said I would change your bandages if you woke up." After she said that, she stood up to get the needed equipments.
A couple of minutes later, she was already diligently removing the old bandages from his legs.
"Did you...find a cure?" the man suddenly asked when she undid the cloth around his eyes.
"I told my sister about it and she gave me some medicine," she explained while putting some of the medicine on a piece of textile. "But she said it was only an antidote for general snake-poison, which I can only apply externally on your eyelids. In order to restore you eyesight, we need to nullify the poison from within, but to do that we need to know from what kind of snake it came. This medicine is only able to weaken the poison's aggressiveness and prevent it from destroying your vision."
Carefully, she touched the red area around his eyes with the cloth. She gasped when he suddenly flinched at the contact. "I-I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?" she apologized.
"N-no...no...actually...it was quite refreshing..." he said with a small smile. "P-please...go on."
Hearing that, she continued dabbing his eyelids. "I'm so sorry..."
.-
He was surprised to hear her repeated apology. "I told you that it didn't hurt, so-"
"No, I'm not talking about that," she cut him off.
'Huh?' he thought with a raised brow.
"I told you that we would be able to find a cure...yet I-"
This time, he decided to cut her off. "It's not your or your sister's fault, so don't worry about it."
'Yes...I can only blame myself for being careless...' he scolded himself. 'The rest looked up to me as a leader because I'm the strongest and now I've become the weakest. It'll take a long time before I can even wield a weapon...'
The thought instantly reminded him of his favorite weapon and he darted his eyes around, as if he was trying to sense its presence.
"What's wrong?"
He turned to the voice. "When you found me, have you seen a large halberd nearby?" he asked.
The woman thought for a second. "As a matter of fact, I did. But I couldn't lift it up even with the help of my sister. Using Kirara's demonic strength, we were merely able to drag it over the grass to hide it in some bushes."
"Who's Kirara?"
"Oh...forgive me. Kirara is a fire cat but we see her as a part of the family," she explained.
"You must be very strong to wield such a heavy weapon...are you a warrior or something?"
'A warrior? Me...?' He was amused by her naivety. "No..." he answered.
Should he tell her the truth? She would definitely not buy it if he said he was a simple traveler.
"Since you're my lifesaver, I'll be honest with you...I'm an assassin," he confessed bluntly. "I'm one of those that kill for money."
He let out a soft 'hmp' when no reaction came. "You must be regretting your decision to save me, don't you? Can't say I blame you for that," he chuckled as he held up both his hands. "These hands of mine are soiled with the blood of countless humans and youkai, so-"
His sentence stopped in the middle when the woman forced him to stretch out his arms.
"All right! If you keep them stretched out like this, it'll be easier for me to swathe the new bandage," she said.
'Didn't she hear what I just said?' he frowned. "Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Should I be?"
"Well...I'm an assassin...and I-"
"Assassins are also humans..."
He was astonished by her words. She wasn't wrong but it was still quite bewildering to hear it from a person whose parents were killed.
"Of course, killing people for money doesn't justify the fact that you've taken a life," she continued. "But at least it's a reason. And I'm sure it's because you needed the money, didn't you?"
"My parents were killed for practically no reasons at all. We lived our lives to the fullest, and yet..."
(AN: Kagome is actually referring to how she lost her real father.)
Her voice faltered, making the atmosphere heavier than it already was.
With guilty feelings filling his heart, he didn't know what to say anymore. By wrongly assuming that she would regret of having saved him, he had possibly insulted her and now he felt even more sorry for making her remember her sad past.
Just when he parted his lips to apologize, the woman finished bandaging his arms and stood up.
"But you know..." she suddenly began as she moved further away from him. "...somehow...I can feel that you are actually a good-hearted person even though you're an assassin."
With that said, she opened the door and left the room, leaving him behind in thoughts.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Here I am again! Hope you liked this installment! By the way, there's a test coming up so it'll taking more time for the next update! Please review and tell me what you think so far okay? Thanks!
Greets,
Kittymui
.-.-.
'Italic': thoughts
"...": spoken words
-.-.-.: time gap
-CAPSLOCKED WORDS: noises
.-.-.
Next chapter: Chapter X
.-.
Well, nothing much to say about the next chapter. We'll just continue to look at our two main characters :). Be sure to look forward to it!
.-.
Vocabulary:
chikusho: damn it
gomen: I'm sorry
baka: stupid/moron
youkai: demon
.-.-.
REPLIES ON REVIEWS:
eMeLyNoOoPeE: Thank you :). As for your question, I'm not planning to return to the "real" world before Bankotsu's done with reading this book.
whitewolfmoro11: -relieved sigh- For a moment, I thought it was a negative one haha. Too bad your review got erased, now I'm curious to what you actually wrote in it :). Hope this chapter was good as well!
AnimeMoonlightGoddess: I will!
Skitzoflame: How did you like the awakening of Bankotsu?
sessywuver: Glad you loved it! Well...-refrains herself from spoiling the storyline-...euhm...perhaps after Bankotsu's done with the book?
xxprincess-sakuraxx: Yay! You reviewed again! Thanks! You probably mean Kag and Ban meeting in real person don't you? At the moment, he's still stuck with reading this "book" :p so it might take some more chapters.
Inukamisashi: You're very welcome!
Wake-Robin: Not in the real world...but I guess you can already predict that Kagome will die eventually in the book we're reading at the moment :). Thanks for reviewing, hope you liked this chapter too!
Angel of Darkness and Death: Thanks for reviewing!
Kokoro Mizu no Kaze: Thank you :)! I'll try to update as soon as possible!
BelleDayNight: I'm so happy you think that way :)! You're reviews are very encouraging! Kagome is 19 by the way. Your stories are great as well, too bad I haven't got much time to read lately -sigh-. As much as I want to shift the perspective to the fortress right now, I can't do that yet. I think you'll understand why once I've reached the last page of the book :). Nope, it's not an elaborate setup to meet Kagome (you probably already figured that out), because the Shichinintai never seen her before, nor do they know where she was hiding. So far, Bankotsu and the rest are still convinced that the princess of the Western Lands is still inside the fortress, hope that clears up a bit. As for Bankotsu's injuries, he fell after the snakes blinded him. So he rolled down the cliff and ended up in the creek that was flowing towards the south, hence he's now near the southern borders of the Western Lands.
FanFic-Faerie-Rikku91: I'm really really glad you that like it :)!
sakurakitsune14: Thanks for reviewing!
personwithnoname: Just wait and see :).
Fluffy'sbabe: Hahaha, he's injured remember? And she can't see his eyes so I don't think she thinks he's handsome (yet). But he IS handsome, that I have to agree with you :)!
Duzzie: I'm glad you like this story so far! Thank you for reviewing it hihihi!
Tamia: Once again, thank you so much for reading and reviewing!
Sirayme: Yup, definitely like them! About my inspiration problems, they're periodical...really annoying indeed!
Posted: 26 Feb 2005
Last Edited: 26 Feb 2005
Spelling check: YES
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha or any characters of it. And I do not own whatever elements of this story that seem familiar and had already been used by other creative individuals before. But... I do own the idea of mixing all of these elements together into a new story!