RELATIONS AGAIN

Writer: Ark Angel HFB
Editor:
–

A/N: I removed a similar chapter in the first rewrite without realizing it was important for the story. And this rippled through the story creating a very different plot than I wanted.

As such I'm adding it back in and correcting the mistake in the final re-writes for the rest of the chapters.

It is 6/22/22 I can not express how stifling my depression and writer's block has been these last 10 years… but I'm putting forward that I will still try for you guys. I can't say my work will always be the best… but I can promise it will at least... be.
–

CHAPTER 5: Rain and Ruin

Inuyasha's free hand raised, claws ready to strike, eyes glaring down to dare resistance, and his knee pressing into his prey's chest to ensure no escape.

There was a long pause, and the two stayed motionless. The rain had already soaked both of them and continued to fall in heavy drops. "Get off me, moron. You smell vile!" Haydin spat the insult with what air was left in his chest.

"Feh." Inuyasha brought his hand down, clenching it into a fist before it connected with Haydin's face.

XXXxxxXXX

Adjusting her deep blue kimono, the young wolf youkai tucked her tail around her belt line as she lectured her companion. With a twist of her head, she flicked her long braided hair over her shoulder. "Funami, how could you leave the crest? Moniru-sama will have your head, and then mine!" Her tone was harsh and worried, as she tried to see through the darkness and weather. The forest reeked of grotesque fear from every direction. This was not her first assignment patrolling the boundary forests of the Northern Lands, and tonight something was beyond wrong.

"Ssshut up Mangetssssu Tssssuki!" hissed the slender copper skinned naga youkai, her own long tail wrapped around a tree as she elevated herself in an attempt to see over the brush. "I panicked… but we can retrieve it ssssafely." Her tongue flickered out of her mouth as she tasted the air and was greeted by an overpowering sapidity of fright mixed with a faint strange acridness. "We must make an attempt… Mangetsssu Tssssuki"

"Funami, stop saying my full name like that…" Tsuki shook her head as she sighed. "It is disturbing."

"Very well… Mangetssssuuu…" Funami slithered into the darkness. "I wassss merely ssssstartled. Come, in thissss direction. The... group was not large, we can overpower them together."

XXXxxxXXX

Wind whipped through the forest in pulses, ebbing and flowing to the rhythm of the storm as rain beat down with dense cold droplets. Lightning etched through the clouds in wild sprawling patterns as thunder rolled.

Slinging mud from the sleeves of his robe, Inuyasha stood with an exasperated curse. He loomed over the downed human teen who lay still in a shallow puddle. "You think faking again is gonna work!" Inuyasha yelled, but no response came and the human did not move. With a glance at his scuffed knuckles Inuyasha pondered. "I did hit him a little hard…"

With a shrug, Inuyasha slowly turned and tried to scan the area around him. It was impossible to see very far or for very long. The flaring rain created a haze, and constant flashes of lightning never gave enough time between bolts to adjust to the darkness. His ears twitched back and forth, but a combination of thunder, rain, and wind drowned out all other sounds. He tried to take a deep breath in through his nose but the scent of the sickening flowers on him somehow seemed to grow stronger with each breath.

He felt light headed, oddly hot, and although his breath came easily, his chest felt tight. Even with the chilling rain, the foul scent of the red flowers hung on him and he again cursed softly and spit. He held his face high letting the cool droplets give him what reprieve it could, but it did little good. Inuyasha's instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong, but he could think of little to do about it.

"If I stay like this, I'm gonna puke…" Hoping the offending fragrance was clinging to only his top layer of clothing, Inuyasha knelt, opening the coat portion of the Fire-Rat robe and pushed it down until it hung around his waist before tying the sleeves like a belt. It seemed to help but his head still swam. He then grabbed a handful of the human's shirt and pulled him up onto his shoulder to carry him, and with his other hand he grabbed the teen's bag. "I'm too dizzy to run like this… fuck why is this night being so fucking annoying?"

XXXxxxXXX

"Funami, where are you!?" The female wolf youkai screamed into the night. She panted as she knelt catching her breath and attempted to catch her companion's scent. Tsuki muttered as she pulled away from a nearly complete wall of webbing. "Stubborn filth..."

She had been sprinting after the naga youkai for minutes, but had been delayed by increasing complex weaves of webs. Single threads, finer than hair, laced the forest in every direction now and were only barely given away by water that stuck to them. However, more troubling were the solid walls of webbing that sectioned off the forest into a maze.

"Funami!?" Tsuki swept through the webbing with her spear, parting it with skill. "Funami, be alright… just be alright and come back." Without hesitation, Tsuki leapt through the opening she had created and sprinted onward. "Funami! ANSWER ME!"

XXXxxxXXX

Inuyasha continued to trudge slowly through the precipitation as the storm only worsened. His head swirled and he again flinched to avoid doubling over to retch. A frustrated low growl rumbled in his throat as he picked his way through the underbrush. While tracking the teen he'd mostly followed a large stream. Now, due to the constant deluge, the stream had turned into a raging torrent that overflowed both banks and flooded the nearby forest.

Forced to take a path back to his companions that was significantly deeper into the woods, the underbrush grew ever heavier. Inuyasha shifted the teen on his shoulder, balancing the human that hung limp. "Everything about this whole damn day actually…" Rounding a wide tree and ducking under a branch in one motion, his foot sunk deep and stuck in a silky soft substance.

With effort, he ripped his limb free, backing away to look down. There he saw, spanning up the whole side of the tree and out onto the ground around it, unnaturally dense sticky spider webs. His pulse quickened and his heart sank. "Fuck…"

Through a bush to his right came a muffled burbling sound. Inuyasha's sense of smell fought through the nauseating flower's effects, and he was able to pick up a caustic aroma mixed with that of blood, he lingered his attention on the webs for a moment before he turned, facing the sound.

Creeping forward, Inuyasha prepared to shrug the human from his shoulder, drop the bag in his off hand, and rend whatever awaited him with his claws. However, clearing the brush he was greeted by only the body of a cooper snake like youkai mostly covered in webs.

What was visible of the youkai's flesh was still bubbling away to sludge from some acidic toxin, and it spasmed already well in death's grasp.

With a grimace and a frantic darting glance about to confirm nothing was near, Inuyasha slipped away and pushed on into the night.

XXXxxxXXX

Kagome walked alone down the damp wooden halls of the inn, absentmindedly fumbling with the Jewel as she paced. "Why are you taking so long?" Worrying about Inuyasha was nothing new to her, but tonight seemed strangely worse. Stopping to watch rain fall into growing puddles, She gripped the Jewel. It felt so warm in her hand as she enveloped it with purification. Even as her worry continued, she felt something ease within herself and the Jewel seemed to cool. "I need to speak with Kaede about this…" turning to make her way back to her friends, Kagome paused to look into the dark night. "Please be safe and hurry back, Inuyasha."

XXXxxxXXX

…

Their nose burned even in the cold as a foul odor hung around them. "What is that…"

…

They were cold and the world swung in steady sway. "Am I moving…?" Their arms hung forward loosely bobbing and they tried to look around with just their eyes, careful to not tense any muscles.

...

They saw little in the darkness or momentary flashes of light. "Was I fighting someone?"

...

Their body shivered in the cold, uncontrollably. "Think I lost… again…"

…

XXXxxxXXX

Inuyasha cut his eyes at the sky as the rain and wind relented abruptly. "The webs mean nothing… Naraku is gone." In frustration, He shook his head to rid himself of the nagging doubt. For little over a mile, the path low at ground level had been mostly clear, but the weave of the webbing at treetop level was becoming complex and dense.

Each bolt in the sky lit up thousands and thousands of raindrops that hung mid air resting on the strands of thin silk.

He slipped past another tree trunk that was completely covered in webs as lightning branched across the sky, and Inuyasha spotted something in the distance shimmering brightly. Narrowing his eyes to focus on the spot and careful to not touch any of the nearby silky strands, he ducked behind cover. With each flash overhead the shimmer returned high off the ground in the trees. Silently stalking forward from cover to cover, Inuyasha advanced until he could see the glittering object clearly.

Suspended high above the ground a female wolf youkai was tangled upside-down. Webs covered most of her body, but a free hand still clutched a simple but well polished spear. She swayed back and forth and the polished blade bounced the gleam of each lightning strike back out into the night. Her eyes were barely open, as she peered off into the distance with an unfocused and vacant expression.

Inuyasha took note that the webs that held the youkai also continued out into the forest, seemingly to no end. "I only missed all of this on the way into the forest because I stuck near that stream… but it's over flowing now and too muddy to walk near." He raised an eyebrow at her attire of an elaborate blue kimono. It seemed very unlike the simpler furs he was used to seeing wolf youkai wear. He was about to again press on, when he saw her draw a shallow half breath.

"Fuck…" He spit the curse as a whisper and only battled himself for a moment before resigning to an even more annoying night. "Oi! You dead or not?" He asked, his ears twitching trying to hear any response.

In the gaps between thunder rolling in, without the rain and wind he could hear into the darkness. Silence. It was as if the whole night was dead. Nothing made a sound as a moment passed, then another half breath was pulled by the wolf, drawn shallow and weak.

"Damn it…" Muttering, the hanyou knelt slightly before he rolled the teen off his shoulder, letting the human and his bag unceremoniously drop onto the wet ground. Taking barely a half step, Inuyasha leapt and focused his yoki into his claws and twirled. Wide swipes shredded apart the webs, and he twisted in the air to both cut the last threads, and catch the wolf youkai at the same time.

XXXxxxXXX

She felt herself cradled firmly as she glided downwards, barely aware of herself. She managed only another shallow breath, and for her hand to remain gripping onto something that she only knew must not be released. As she came to rest, she could make out only an odd silhouette in the flashes of lightning. "Horns… no… they move…"

The webs pulled away from her chest with a stretching tearing sound and her body instantly, desperately, drew a deep gasp of air. The fog of darkness retreating from her vision, her eyes snapped fully open, and focused onto pools of gold. Her nose twitched. "Hanyou..."

With a shriek, Tsuki twisted and drove her now freed elbow into the nose of the male who held her.

A/N: So this one chapter spawned into three… but I'm happy with the first part at least. I'm going to try and release the new chapters soon.