Freedom

Chapter3: Choice

Choice has always been a privilege of those could afford to pay for it

-Ellen Frankfort

A steady pounding in Inuyasha's head brought him rudely out of his forced slumber. He had tried to stay awake but his injury and his exhaustion got the better of him and he had fallen into darkness. Miroku had stayed awake, talking quietly with Touran as to not disturb the hanyou. Inuyasha gave a large yawn that alerted the two other occupants of the carriage that he was awake.

"Have a nice nap?" Miroku asked as Inuyasha stretched as much as the small space of the carriage would allow.

Inuyasha didn't answer at first, his focus diverted elsewhere. He was trying to ignore the dull ache in his arm and his back as they healed and figure out where they were at the same time. His head still pounded and that muddled his thoughts. He hated being injured.

"How is your arm?" Touran inquired, moving to sit next to the hanyou, her eyes betraying her worry.

Inuyasha gazed back at her in surprise and flinched when she put her hand on his bandaged shoulder. He hadn't needed to get it bandaged, he would have healed anyway. But Miroku had insisted and Touran had demanded it. For some reason Inuyasha found himself obeying her, but not because she owned him. He couldn't figure it out.

"Hanyous heal rather slowly don't they?" Touran muttered to herself, prodding Inuyasha's injury.

The muscle under Inuyasha's cheek twitched in annoyance but he didn't say anything. Miroku was watching all of this, his persona one of mild boredom and amusement.

"Are we there yet Lady Touran?" he asked slumping in his seat slightly. For some reason he couldn't be formal around Touran like he had been required to do with his other masters. All slaves were required to sit up straight in their master's presence and they were not allowed to look them directly in the face. Touran however seemed entirely more approachable than that. He added the "Lady" out of habit and he had been doing it for so long he didn't think it was about to change.

Miroku could be very polite when he needed to be.

"You would do me a great favor if you dropped the "Lady" Lord Monk." Touran said softly turning to look out the window again.

Miroku started at turned to look at Touran in surprise. Inuyasha had managed to shrug their mistress's hand off his shoulder and was now gazing at her warily. Inuyasha had known that Miroku was a Houshi. His holy powers had faded over time and he was unable to use them.

"If you know that I am a monk then why do you permit me to live?" Miroku asked softly. "If I had holy powers I could purify you."

"You have no holy powers. I, unlike many others, have not gone soft. I am still able to tell," Touran answered turning back to look at Miroku again.

"You bought him anyway? You must really enjoy training slaves to buy an unholy Houshi." Inuyasha said sharply

Touran shrugged and smiled at the two of them. "I don't see what the trouble is."

Miroku nodded and sighed. "A monk with no powers…isn't that a little pathetic?"

Both Inuyasha and Touran fell silent. Inuyasha had never been very good at comforting people; he preferred to be silent. It wasn't his business. Let Miroku handle it on his own.

"Where exactly are we going anyway?" Inuyasha asked sharply changing the subject.

Miroku gave him a quick appreciative glance and Inuyasha's eyes flashed in acknowledgement.

Touran settled down again and peered out the window.

"We should be close. We will make it there by nightfall."

Inuyasha frowned dangerously, angry that his question had not been answered. Miroku merely sighed. It seemed that he, like Inuyasha was quickly loosing his patience. Still, he was happy that he seemed to have finally found a nice master. He was lucky to be riding in the coach at all instead of being dragged along by a rope tied to the back. Miroku knew that and he knew that Inuyasha knew it also. Both of them were pleased to be free of Goshinki. They had managed to get away from him without doing hardly any work, which was how Miroku liked it.

Yes, Miroku was a lazy bum.

Happy as they were to be free of their former Master, they were still slightly wary of Lady Touran, a Shihitou trainer.

Of course they had heard of the tournaments. Who hadn't? A tournament was a series of fights, fought by ningen, youkai and maybe even hanyou slaves. Rarely did a member of a species fight against another of another species. It was thought of as a waste of a good slave to put him against someone who he couldn't possibly win against. Humans were after all weaker than youkai.

And so now Miroku found himself about to the trained as a Shihitou. He wasn't sure how exactly that sat with him, but he would soon find out all the details. Then he could make his decision whether to deny Touran's offer or not.

"Monk…Oi monk….."

Inuyasha sighed in irritation and jostled Miroku again, trying in vain to wake the man up. Miroku had dozed off a few minutes after their conversation and Inuyasha and Touran had let him sleep, feeling that he deserved as much. Miroku hadn't slept the whole journey.

Inuyasha poked Miroku in the forehead with one claw, watching in bored impassiveness as he made Miroku's head loll back and forth. He was aware Touran was behind him but he ignored her presence in favor of poking Miroku. Inuyasha was just a little disappointed when his friend began to stir, but continued to manipulate the movement of the man's head.

"Inuyasha, why are you touching my face?"

"It's your own fault for falling asleep and not waking up." Inuyasha said flatly, rising from his kneeling position next to Miroku. For the first time in three days he could stretch out completely. He was finally out of that stupid coach.

The carriage had taken them further away from the main city and deeper into the country. They were right on the edge of a large forest that as far as he could see, which was a lot for Inuyasha. The road they were on was completely surrounded by tall broad trees and the hanyou immediately felt at home here. There were very few places left that resembled this place. Inuyasha himself, in all his wanderings had only seen a forest once before in his life. Where he was raised.

Inuyasha blinked away the memories before he became lost in them. His focus was on the large and intimidating gate in front of him. The forest ended a few feet from the first stone but the sudden lack of trees seemed totally natural, like the wall had grown with the forest and the trees had sprouted to make way for it. The thought puzzled Inuyasha slightly but he was far too interested in finding out all he could about this place and about his new mistress. He hadn't forgotten about her strange reaction to his name.

Touran walked forward and threw all her weight against the door. It didn't budge at all. The Lady made an impatient noise in her throat and pushed again. Again the door remained stationary and a soft giggle was heard on the other side.

"Damn it Shunran, open the blasted door!"

The other slaves that had accompanied Touran, Inuyasha and Miroku all sighed. They obviously knew what was going on and had become accustomed to it. Inuyasha and Miroku however, were very confused.

They watched as Lady Touran proceeded to curse the door, which continued to giggle, then chuckle, then laugh loudly as it remained firm.

"Shunran, I found some new slaves. I'm tired and they are tired as well. Open the damn door before I make you!"

The door sighed and swung open, then disappeared entirely. Standing where the gate had been was a young youkai girl. Her hair was a dark red and hanging freely down to the middle of her back. She seemed young but one could never really tell with demons. She too was wearing fine clothes but hers looked more like armor than anything else.

"You've found more slaves Touran?" the girl asked, her voice shrill with excitement. "Karan will be happy. She says the others are too pansy."

The girl paused for a moment and looked up at the sky as if she were deep in thought.

"What does pansy mean sister?"

Touran groaned and walked past the girl, motioning for Inuyasha, Miroku and the other slaves to follow her.

"Shunran take care of the carriage will you?"

The girl pouted angrily and poked the ends of her index fingers together. Miroku looked back and couldn't help but notice the way the young youkai's body formed gentle curves under her armor or the fullness of her lips as she pouted.

Yes, not only was Miroku lazy but he was a pervert too.

Before the houshi could form anymore inappropriate thoughts about the young girl Shunran he was pulled away by a large lock of his hair.

"Ow…OW that hurts! Okay sorry!"

Lady Touran dismissed the other slaves that were following her and they disappeared into a large stone building that appeared over a rise in the path they were on. Inuyasha paused and looked after the slaves a little uncertainly. Miroku sighed in relief when the tension on his hair eased to only wince in pain again as Inuyasha resumed walking, following Touran to the top of a hill.

The Lady stopped and pointed at the compound below them, smiling when she noticed Inuyasha's surprised look. The hanyou released Miroku's hair and the monk fell firmly on his backside not expecting the suddenness of the motion.

Inuyasha ignored his friend's grumbling and concentrated on taking in everything around him.

It appeared to be a large village with a number of well built stone houses and a number of larger and more intricately designed buildings. In the middle of it all was a large flat area where many slaves seemed to be fighting each other.

What surprised Inuyasha and Miroku the most, however, was that there was nothing stopping the slaves from simply running into the forest. There was no wall around the small village and there were no slave drivers keeping them in line.

Lady Touran nodded to herself and answered the two slave's unvoiced question.

"There is nothing keeping you here. If you wish to leave go ahead, but you will miss out on everything I have to teach you. You are not treated like a slave here because you are no longer one. You are a Shihitounow.

Miroku sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking a little torn. Inuyasha's eyes darted from Touran, to the village, and the road then back again. He was obviously thinking hard.

"What do you think Inuyasha?" Miroku asked softly.

Inuyasha crossed his arms and frowned. "We are free to come and go if we want to right?"

Touran nodded in answer. Inuyasha turned to Miroku looked strangely giddy. His eyes shone happily as he smirked and raised an eyebrow in question. As much as he wished to deny it, Miroku was sharing in Inuyasha's feeling of excitement.

"It'd be better than being a slave." Inuyasha said flatly, eyeing his friend, care to keep the giddiness he was feeling out of his voice.

"We would be treated better." Miroku added, nodding to himself.

"We can leave anytime we wanted."

"Not that we'd want to."

"We couldn't anyway."

"We have nowhere else to go."

"So we should stay here then."

"Yes we should."

"So we will."

"Good,"

"Fine then,"

"We're staying." Both slaves said at the same time nodding to themselves.

Lady Touran smiled and gestured to the compound.

"Welcome home then."

AN: Revised and reposted. Continue to watch this space. Review and no I don't own Inuyasha.