Freedom
Chapter7: Choice Encounters
-and from the mouths of fire and water they emerged. Broken forms remade into statues of stone and metal. Glinting steal banishing forth. O Young One! Fear not death. Bring peace to the people! He will come and destroy the world. O Half-One, bring forth the Hajime-bring forth the Owari. O Young One! O One of Darkness, bring the Owari, bring the end.
-Excerpt from the Text Hajime
"-and that is the way you do it," Miroku said proudly, setting the ink brush down next to a scroll of paper. He glanced up at his companion to see that he was carefully stacking the ink blocks on one another. "Inuyasha are you paying attention?"
The hanyou looked up at Miroku blankly before shaking his head. "No I wasn't. What were you saying?"
Miroku leaned back against the wall with a frustrated sigh.
Practice was over for the day and the two of them, along with the other slaves were free to do whatever they wished until dinner was served in the main building of the compound. Inuyasha and Miroku had quickly figured out how things were done here and had fallen into the same routine as all the other Shihitou.
All the men were up at dawn and given a small breakfast before training. Training consisted of learning form, technique, and judgment, along with honing strength, speed and stamina. Most of the time they were put through exercises to practice their skills. But occasionally they would spar against each other, like Inuyasha had done the first day of his training.
Karan let them go a little after noon, when the day was hottest, and after that the Shihitou had the rest of the day to themselves until dinner later on in the evening.
Miroku had somehow figured out that Inuyasha's couldn't read or write when the two of them had first met and now that the monk had a chance to teach his friend these important skills, he was trying to take advantage of it. He had asked for an ink brush, some ink blocks, and paper and had begun to teach his friend simple Hiragana. It was like teaching a rock to read.
"Please, Inuyasha it's not that hard. Pay attention, will you?"
Inuyasha glanced down at the characters on the paper and frowned.
"I really don't see the point in this," he said sharply, looking up at Miroku.
"There is a point. Why don't you know how to read or write?"
Inuyasha gave his friend a suspicious look but the former monk gave nothing away in his expression. Inuyasha thought over the question carefully before answering.
"I never learned. I didn't get the chance," he said pointedly, his eyes narrowing into slits.
Miroku's eyebrows lifted at the slightly hostile and tired tone that Inuyasha used but he said nothing of it. The two of them had come to an agreement long ago that the past would remain there until it needed to be brought up. Quite simply it meant: Don't ask questions. Miroku knew very little of Inuyasha's past. He only knew that his father was an Inu-youkai and that his mother had been a human. Inuyasha's father and mother had been killed when he was very little and the young hanyou had been sold into slavery.
Miroku cleared his head of such thoughts and chided himself for letting his mind wander.
"-And why didn't you get the chance?"
"Slaves aren't allowed to learn how to read, you know that!" Inuyasha snapped, his teeth bared at his friend.
Miroku gave a solemn nod and closed his eyes. "-And why is that Inuyasha?" he asked softly.
Inuyasha sighed and brought a tired hand up to rub his eyes. "To keep slaves under control," he answered, realizing the point Miroku was trying to make.
Miroku opened his eyes and gave Inuyasha an empty smile.
"Exactly,"
Inuyasha glowered at the monk before he grunted and looked down at the scroll. "Teach me,"
"Gladly. I'll teach you your name first." Miroku slowly wrote out the characters as Inuyasha watched him.
The monk paused to examine his work before handing the brush to Inuyasha.
"Copy it."
A few hours later Inuyasha showed the scroll to Miroku with a triumphant smile. Miroku said nothing as he took the scroll from the hanyou and read it over.
"Very nice, the characters are beautiful and your penmanship is surprisingly neat."
Inuyasha snorted and crossed his arms. "I told you I could do it."
Miroku nodded and handed the scroll back to him. "Yes good job, but it reads 'The air smells of fresh manure.'"
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed at the monk and he snatched the scroll back.
"Which characters are manure?"
Miroku was about to continue the lesson when a loud series of gongs were heard, calling everyone to the main building for dinner.
Miroku got to his feet and pulled the scroll from Inuyasha's hands. "We'll continue this later. I suggest we go before everyone else eats everything."
Inuyasha gave the former slave a scathing look but he got to his feet and followed him out of the chamber. The compound really was very intricately designed. There were a number of buildings, each with there own particular purpose. There was the Kitchen, the servants' chambers, the Shihitou's chambers and the odd storage building here or there. It really was quite large and slightly hard to find one's way around. Thankfully there was always someone wandering around to ask for directions.
This time Inuyasha and Miroku simply followed the crowd of Shihitou that were traveling in the same direction. They had stopped receiving strange looks from the other men and had been accepted as "the new guys", not that it mattered much. Both Miroku and Inuyasha mainly kept to themselves, force of habit.
The small group of Shihitou talked easily with each other as they made their way down the hallway, ignoring the two new men that had merged with their little group. However one youkai noticed and called attention to them.
"Well, what do we have here? A half-breed and his little human friend," the youkai sneered.
The small group stopped and everyone's attention was drawn to the two mentioned persons and the jeering youkai. Miroku and Inuyasha blinked in surprise and stopped walking.
"If we offended you we apologize," Miroku said slowly, obviously in doubt about what to do in this situation.
Inuyasha said nothing; the only sign that he heard what the youkai said at all was the slight twitching of the muscle in his right cheek.
"You're new here, so let me give you a little advice: Stay out of my way."
"Really…" Inuyasha said snidely "-and who are you again?"
"My name's Kouga and you'll do good to remember it."
Miroku opened his mouth to say something but Inuyasha beat him to it, already having a firm disliking of the youkai.
"You just smell like some filthy, mangy wolf to me," The hanyou growled angrily.
Kouga's cerulean eyes narrowed and turned to face Inuyasha completely. Both Shihitou squared their shoulders and planted their feet in an offensive battle stance. The other Shihitou, including Miroku, formed a large semi-circle around the two of them and watched intently.
Both Kouga and Inuyasha began to circle each other as the hallway grew almost completely silent. The torches that lined the hallway flickered, sending dancing shadows into the crevices and corners of the wide corridor.
Already Inuyasha's mind was making calculations, listing weaknesses and strengths. His eyes glowed with the light of a killer, one who delights in the thought of struggle. Kouga's eyes flashed as well, taking on a glow of their own. His lips were curled into a mocking smile as he faced down the inu-hanyou before him. Inuyasha could tell that the wolf was becoming impatient but made no move to openly attack his opponent.
One of nature's greatest killers is the spider; it does not go it its prey but allows its prey to come to it. The perfect little offence…
Suddenly a loud crashing sound from the other end of the hallway drew the Shihitou's attention away from the current battle in front of them. Shunran came running down the hallway, fleeing her elder brother, Shuuran. The assembled men parted as one body to make room for the two noble youkai but Shunran, seeing a way out of her predicament latched onto Inuyasha's arm and drew him in front of her, creating a shield.
The hanyou blinked in surprise. One moment he was about to have a very bloody one-on-one, hand-to-hand fight with an over-pompous wind bag of a wolf, and now he was being glared at by one of his instructors as he tried to get to his younger sister.
"Shunran, stop that this instant! Touran told you what had to be done, and you've known it for a long time. I'm not in the mood for this."
"I don't like him! His hair's oily and stringy! He's creepy!" Shunran wailed into Inuyasha's ear, tightening her hold on his robes. Inuyasha tried to pull away but Shunran's hand tangled into his sleeve. He gave a silent groan.
"Do you think that I don't know that!" Shuuran snapped sharply, moving to drag Shunran out from behind Inuyasha. Shunran backed up a step, dragging Inuyasha with her.
"Why can't Karan do it? She's always gone into the city before, why can't she do it now?"
"She just came back."
"So?"
"Shunran!"
The young cat youkai dislodged herself from Inuyasha and took off again. Her brother took off after her muttering curses.
The hallway was silent. Where there had been tension and anxiousness to see blood spilt, there was now confusion and amusement.
"What the hell was that all about?" Kouga muttered to himself, shaking his head.
Inuyasha shook his head and crossed his arms. "I have no idea."
The two youkai glanced at each other and their gazes narrowed. Miroku instantly took it upon himself to defuse the steadily escalating conflict.
"Well yes I guess we'll never know," he said firmly moving to Inuyasha's side and pushing him down the hallway. "Is anyone else hungry? I am defiantly hungry. So we'll leave now…now…Let's go Inuyasha!"
Kouga watched the two men walk down the hallway with a smug smile playing across his face.
Well the hanyou was certainly interesting wasn't he?
Deep under the city of Fukuju there is a vast network of catacombs stretching further out than anyone has ever dared to explore before. Very little light reached the dark passages; therefore most of the tunnels were too dark to traverse, even for youkai.
Some were natural, simply being large dug out burrows but some were paved with dark uneven stones. No one knew who had taken the time to do this, or who had created the tunnels at all.
Had they always been there or had someone made them for some purpose unknown? It was a mystery that bothered very few people because hardly anyone would willingly go down into the tunnels…
With the exception of a few people.
A gentle sound of soft humming was heard, along with the sound to small feet hitting hard stone. The small form that skipped along the pitch black passages was near invisible. Her small dress was covered in mud, though it made little difference down here. She moved with an odd confidence, as if she knew where she was going.
Her eyes stared straight ahead of her, a small smile tugging at her lips as she hummed some wordless tune she had made up. In her hands was a loaf of bread. Some nice human lady had given it to her this morning; it would be a nice meal. The steady sound of her feet hitting the tiles of the tunnel made her think of music. The little girl found herself singing before she could help it.
Shadow is me
Shadows on the wall
Kadama, Kadama
Kadama pit-pat
Kadama pit-pat
Shadow is me
Shadows on the floor
Kadama, Kadama…
The girl trailed off when she heard a soft sound ahead of her. It sounded like soft chuckling, evil, menacing…
Her first instinct was to turn around and run but something stopped her. The little girl's bread hit the ground with a dull thud as she walked forward. Something was burning her eyes; light! There was light all the way down here.
Usually the girl stayed close to one of the entrances to the catacombs. Rarely did she venture further than that; but she knew of an old man that lived deeper into network where the tunnels became unkempt and they widened out to become large chambers.
The old man was a youkai and he could go a long time without food but if the girl ever had any extra she would give it to him. He was kind to her and when she visited him, he always seemed happy to see her. The old man could make light. She didn't know how but the small hallow that he lived in was always dimly lit.
Had the old man decided to move closer to an entrance and he was creating the light? The little girl couldn't be there yet, she knew her way around these tunnels very well. She trusted her judgment. The old man wouldn't move; he was far too proud of the little home he had made for himself. This was some new person, someone who could create light as well. The little girl, for all her curiosity, was very wary of people she didn't know. It was a force of habit. Any other time she would have turned around and taken a short cut to the old man's little hollow, but for some reason she was pulled toward this light and this evil laughter.
She stepped into the chamber, squinting up her young face against the light. She waited for her eyes to adjust and gasped bring attention to the person who shared the chamber with her.
"What have we here, a little ningen girl?"
Said girl wasn't listening as her horror filled eyes took in what was around her. She whimpered and took a step back.
"Where are you going?"
The girl looked up at the figure approaching her and she gasped again.
"You…I know you! I'll tell everyone! You can't do this! I'll tell! I'll…"
The figure reached out and grabbed the little girl's throat, cutting off her rants.
"You won't be telling anyone anything, little girl."
The figure brought out a long curved knife from his belt and smiled as it glinted in the light coming from the large earthen vats lining the room. A small army of dead, staring eyes watched as he cut smoothly into the little girl. They seemed to moan and cry in despair as her mouth opened in a silent cry and a small line of blood trickled down her chin. Her small body jerked as the figure pulled the knife out. She fell back with a soft gurgle sound from deep in her throat and died. The man flicked the blood from his weapon before turning back to his work at one of the larger vats.
Her eyes joined the small army of staring dead as the figure chuckled again.
AN: Revised and reposted. Watch this space. Review and no I don't own Inuyasha. (If you value your life…run far, far away…)
Translations:
Owari- End/The End
Kadama- echo (echo…echo…echo…)