Nocturne - Chapter Twenty-Three: Assassin
Rated - M (for suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, and coarse language)
o - o - o - o - o : Indicates scene or POV change
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
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He had decided to give Kagome space. She'd asked for it after all. As soon as he'd arrived in the village, he had smelled death.
Inuyasha first stopped by Miroku's only to find Sango there with all of her brats. Each one was excited to see him running to assault him as soon as they set their sights on him.
Sango had told him the despairing news that she'd only just learned a short time ago when someone came around to find Miroku. Inuyasha grimaced but shrugged. The old hag had been one of the good ones, and he was sorry to hear of her passing, but he wouldn't miss her nagging, though.
Sango peeled her young children from Inuyasha and urged him to see the old miko one last time.
Once he'd arrived, the smell of death threatened to overwhelm him. He was accustomed to the scent, but it had a more potent effect when it was someone you knew. The people who had arrived outside the hut had only recently begun to depart on their way, likely planning to return for the wake and funeral ceremony held the next day. That was all well and good. Fewer people to stare at him. Even his continued presence in the village as a protector had not stopped the prejudice he faced as hanyo.
A Buddhist acolyte stood in the doorway of Kaede's house, blocking his path. He pushed the man out of the way, who rose to give a verbal lashing to whoever thought they could muscle by but decided against it once he saw Inuyasha growling at him.
Satisfied that the man was out of the way, another scent hit him, a familiar one. Kagome looked out to him with sad eyes. He couldn't remember what he'd said upon entering, but it pissed Kagome off even though she didn't once try to punish him. Maybe her grief was in the way of her better judgment.
As he moved closer, he could smell something pungent. It was more than the smell of death that accosted his senses. Something was not right, and he'd voiced his thoughts aloud. Kagome glared at him. "I would think so," she said.
"No, it's more than that," he retorted defensively. He could smell it, and it tickled the edge of his senses with its identity, but there was something else masking the smell, so he couldn't quite put the finger on it.
His ears perked up, and he turned his head to a barely audible noise. A shrill scream could be heard from outside. It was perceptible enough to be heard by Kagome, whose eyes went wide, and she gasped, "Setsuna!"
She made to run out the door, but he was faster, beating her outside and sprinting to the scream. More screaming could be heard, and the loud dissonance of frightened villagers began to fill the air. Inuyasha could see villagers running away, grabbing at one another, and holding young ones to their chests as they fled. He jumped into the air and could see among the chaos. The still form of a woman's body could be seen. The woman's bright and ornate kimono instantly flagged her as Rin.
Another body could be seen standing over Rin's still form. He could tell that she was a woman from her feminine figure, though she wore dark clothes and had a hood over her head. The woman turned, flashing amber eyes up at him, and in her arms was the smaller form of the child, Setsuna.
He snarled and landed a few feet away from the woman. "Put the kid down, bitch, and I might take it easy on ya!"
The baby seemed to be asleep in the woman's arms, which was an unusual feat, given the tenuousness of the situation. Rin still lay unconscious behind the woman. Inuyasha was reassured she was alive by the steady rise and fall of the girl's chest. The strange woman's head darted to Rin's body and back up at Inuyasha. She seemed to be weighing her options for escape.
Inuyasha could hear Kagome call from behind him. "No!" she screamed in abject terror once she was close enough to see her child in the arms of a robed stranger.
He paused, trying to figure out his own best course of action. He couldn't whip out Tessaiga. His mighty blade would do no good against a human. He would have to settle for his claws and his battle acumen.
The woman looked up to the sky, and Inuyasha could not help but follow her gaze. A shadow could be seen circling above, a black dot in the sky getting bigger and bigger with each passing second. He could smell it as it drew closer, a yokai unlike any he'd ever seen before. It resembled a large bird as it swooped down with large, deadly talons at the ready.
He did pull out Tessaiga now and sliced the blade through the air to slay the beast, but the wind scar did not connect. The bird quickly shot past and rose back up into a wind current and safely out of harm's way. He raised the blade to strike again, only to be stopped by the scream of Kagome. "NO! Stop her! Don't let her take the baby! Please, Inuyasha!" she pleaded at the top of her lungs.
His momentary distraction had allowed the woman to begin her escape with the child. Inuyasha quickly darted after the woman. She was slow, her movements deliberate. It would not take long for him to catch up, and he was able to do just that within a matter of seconds. He grabbed the woman by the shoulders and yanked her back. The woman grunted and tried to pull herself free. She was remarkably strong for a human.
Inuyasha held her firmly in place but felt the blossoming of pain in his middle. The woman had landed a kick to his center, sending him flying several feet away. He grunted in surprise rather than pain. What the actual fuck?
He quickly recovered and launched himself at the woman. She was quickly apprehended a second time, and he took the opportunity to snatch her hood away from her head, exposing long silver tresses that spilled out down her back.
Inuyasha could not believe his eyes. Upon her head were ears just like his own. He stood, mouth agape, looking at another inuhanyo. She used his surprise to her advantage, ripping away from his grip and attempting to run again.
He jumped in front of her, and they stood, regarding one another silently. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked. Inuyasha shook his head. It didn't matter. The bitch had Kagome's baby still in her arms. She did not answer him, only giving him a defiant stare. He stepped towards her, and she flinched back.
Her reaction nearly caused him to stop, but his lips turned into a hard line, and he issued a quick, hard blow to her jaw. The impact caused her to crumble, where she stood, and he quickly collected the sleeping baby before she hit the ground.
Inuyasha let out a breath of relief. That could have gone another way. He stood over the unconscious body of the hanyo and looked upon her. Where had she come from? Why couldn't he sense her? He'd mistaken her for a mortal, which she was not.
He held the baby in one hand and grabbed the woman, throwing her over his shoulder. It would be best to take her back for questioning. They would need to know what she was about.
He jumped into the air to quickly return to Kagome. The hanyo woman had led him nearly a mile away in her attempt to escape. When he closed in on where he had left Kagome, he saw Rin still prone on the ground. Kagome was lying on the ground several feet away.
Inuyasha's heart began to beat out of his chest, his ire rising. He threw the unconscious woman's body to the ground and almost ran over to Kagome until he felt movement in his arms. The child was rousing.
A sudden wind picked up and pushed him back a few yards. He planted his feet and bent his knees, raising a free hand to block the dust from his face. Once the wind settled, he saw the massive form of the yokai bird land next to Kagome. Its dark brown feathers ruffled as it shook itself out. It looked at Inuyasha and clacked its beak in amusement.
"Don't you fucking do it!" Inuyasha yelled despite himself. The bird used a large mottled-yellow talon to pull something from Kagome's neck, a giant feather. He could even see from where he stood, her eyes open and staring up at the sky unblinking and unmoving. His first inclination was a heart-dropping imagining that she had died a second and final death, but upon further inspection, he could still hear the slow beat of her heart.
The yokai bird then perched over her, clawing at her body with those razor-sharp talons. "Touch her again, and you fucking die," Inuyasha challenged. He pulled Tessaiga free again, preparing to aim it at the bird.
The yokai chuckled with a hissing sound. "Hanyo scum," he chuckled. It gripped her clothing and spread its mighty wings. It crouched low over her body and launched up into the sky with only a flap of those wings taking her with him. Inuyasha could hear the words called down to him, "As if you could catch me."
He watched helplessly as the bird rose higher and higher into the sky, becoming impossible to follow, especially burdened with the nearly helpless child in his arms. "Fuck!" he yelled aloud.
Too late, Miroku and Sango came running to his aide. Miroku stopped at his side, looking up in the direction that his friend was. "What was that?"
Sango stopped by Rin, crouching down to assess the young woman. "Kami, help us. What has happened?!" She reached to check on Rin's vitals. "Thank the stars; she is alive."
Inuyasha did not look away from the dot, disappearing into the sky. "They took her," he explained, but that was all he knew.
"What? Who took who?" Miroku questioned.
"Kagome…" he replied, looking down at the baby, who looked back up at him. Sango held Rin by the shoulders and eyed Inuyasha. He could feel her eyes on him as if judging him.
As if reading his thoughts, she said, "It's not your fault, Inuyasha. Kagome would have wanted you to save the baby over her. Any mother would."
"Kami, will you look at his?" Miroku exclaimed. He'd finally noticed the body of the hanyo woman and ran over to take a better look.
Inuyasha walked past Miroku and grabbed the woman's body, and placed her over his shoulder once again. "Let's get this one back to your place for some questioning."
Miroku and Sango exchanged looks and worked together to load Rin into Miroku's arms and follow Inuyasha back to their house.
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Once inside the house, Sango banished her children to another room, tasking her oldest with keeping the younger siblings contained until further notice. They left Rin in their care and told the brood to tend to her should she wake, but otherwise, do not disturb her.
Inuyasha dropped the hanyo woman to the floor of the house, much like before in a careless fashion.
Sango gave him a disgruntled look. "Is it necessary to be so harsh?"
"Who's fucking side are you on, woman?" he snapped. He placed the baby in her arms, and she rocked the baby, who was beginning to fidget and squirm.
"Calm down, Inuyasha! Harassing the woman won't answer any questions," Miroku attempted to reassure his friend.
Inuyasha snarled and grabbed the woman by the shoulders, shaking her in an attempt to wake her. Her head lolled to the side, and he brought back a hand to issue a slap to her face.
The blow stung his hand and must have done its work because her eyes began to flutter open. When they had fully opened, and she was able to register her location, her eyes widened even further, and she made a breathy gasp. She tried pushing herself back, but Inuyasha held her robes tightly in one hand. "Yer not going anywhere."
The woman looked around the room frantically, only seeing that she was in an unfamiliar location and surrounded by strange people who likely wished harm upon her. Inuyasha was contemplating all of the ways he could harm her. "Why did you try to make off with the baby, eh? Talk!" he barked.
She only stared in silence, and that angered Inuyasha. Maybe she couldn't understand him, or perhaps she had been sworn to silence. Neither would get him the answers he needed.
He thrust her away from him, satisfied to know that she could not easily escape.
"She's like you," Sango noted.
Inuyasha shot her a glare. "She's nothing like me."
"There's something off about all of this," Miroku observed. "It seems fairly obvious that this one here is not a trained assassin."
"No, shit. She couldn't even escape properly. It's like she didn't know how to do what she was doing," Inuyasha added. "Pathetic."
"She was a distraction," Miroku said. He circled the woman who sat looking at the ground now. "Either they were trying to take both the child and Kagome, or someone knew to use the child to draw our attention away from their true quarry. I'd bet on the latter."
"Well, this silent bitch knows something. We just need to get her to spill it." Inuyasha crossed his arms and glared at her, but her downcast eyes missed the look.
Miroku knelt in front of the woman. "Why did you come? Who are you?" he asked almost gently.
The woman did not respond. Nor did she respond to any of the other questions asked of her, no matter how they were worded or what threats were laid out.
"Fuck this. This is getting nowhere. I can make her talk," Inuyasha threatened. He cracked his knuckles menacingly.
Miroku grabbed Inuyasha by the shoulder, "No, friend. That is not the way."
Inuyasha, annoyed, pulled from his friend's grasp. He began to pace. "At this rate, Kagome could be dead. We need to hurry and figure this shit out."
Sango passed the baby over to her husband before kneeling in front of the woman. "You don't look evil," she began, "but I know that looks can be deceiving."
The woman would not look at anyone, her eyes glued to the ground. Sango took a hand and lifted the woman's chin, which caused her eyes to lift nervously. Sango could be harsh and had a quick temper, but years of motherhood also gave her a measure of patience needed to deal with challenging scenarios. "What's your name?"
After a moment of silence, Sango sighed. "Okay, well, until you tell us otherwise, we will just call you Shizuka. It seems fitting. Will that be okay?"
She looked up at Sango with confusion in her eyes and gave the barest of perceptible nods. Sango lit up, "Ha! See? A little honey works better than vinegar any time you dopes."
Inuyasha scowled, "She's the enemy Sango. Who cares how the fuck she feels?"
Sango gave him a level stare. "I don't think she is the true enemy. Plus, have you never heard the saying, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"
"What? I don't fucking think that applies here!" This was becoming outrageous.
She ignored him and looked back at Shizuka. "Can you tell us - tell me -why you tried to take the baby?"
The hanyo woman's brows drew together, and she looked distressed and afraid. She shook her head vehemently and looked down again.
Sango urged on, "Please, help us?"
Inuyasha felt desperate, he fell to his knees beside the woman, and her eyes widened in fear. Seeing a fear response from someone who seemed to be quite feeble made him feel...guilty. "Where is Kagome? The woman?"
Shizuka raised a trembling hand to her throat, making an 'X' motion and then pointing to her mouth, shaking her head.
It dawned on them all, "You cannot speak?" Inuyasha asked in a measured voice. He almost felt bad. Almost. This woman had tried to make off with the baby to who knows where for who knows what reason, though none of those reasons were likely to be good ones.
"The perfect way to ensure your secrets are not leaked," Miroku said. "I'm surprised that whoever sent her allowed her to be left behind. They may return for her, whether to retrieve her or ensure she does not share intel remains to be seen."
Sango stood up and approached her husband. "Let's go over what we do know and formulate a plan from there."
"Okay, first, we can assume that Kagome is alive. They would have left her body had it been an assassination attempt."
"Unless whoever wanted her dead required a corpse as proof."
"Seriously, Sango? Isn't she, your friend?"
"I'm merely stating facts. You can help by sharing what you know."
"Keh, fine. She was alive. I could hear her heartbeat."
"Then whatever knocked her out was used on Rin as well."
"Probably."
"Poison? Some sort of paralyzing agent sounds likely? There's no way Kagome would have been taken while she was conscious."
"And, there was a bird yokai?"
"Nothing like I've ever seen before. It didn't look like it was from here. Oh, and it plucked a feather from her neck."
"A Yaoguai," Sango stated with certainty.
"You mean yokai?" Miroku asked for clarification.
"No. Yaoguai. That is a demon from the mainland. The mainland is rife with demons we have never seen, but I am well versed in demons from many foreign lands. From what you describe, it is called a Zhennaio. They are deadly assassins who feast on venomous snakes and use that same venom to coat their feathers. They are stealthy, agile, and versatile."
"If it's from the mainland, would that also mean it is going back to the mainland? And taking Kagome back with it?" Inuyasha asked.
"I would seem like a fair assumption." Miroku nodded.
"We-we must warn Sesshomaru," Sango urged nervously.
Inuyasha growled at the suggestion. "Fuck him. I told you he ran off. He doesn't care."
"Whoever took Kagome likely did so because of him."
"That ain't no lie, but it's a waste of our time to try and appeal to his better nature. We're better off trying to do this on our own." It crossed Inuyasha's mind that his brother had promised to kill him if anything happened to Kagome. It wouldn't be long before he came to uphold his end of the bargain.
"Inuyasha, we know nothing of the situation aside from the fact that she was taken and to where. The mainland is vast in comparison to our home. It would take years to travel and search blindly. We need to take this to Sesshomaru. At the very least, he can point us in the right direction or even give us information if he isn't inclined to help."
"I have a better idea," he looked over to the woman who had schooled her features into a blank stare, "Let's use her. She can lead us there."
"You idiot. She may have shared a tiny piece of information, but she is likely loyal to whoever sent her. An apprentice near a temple will recite the scriptures untaught," Miroku lectured.
They all looked at the inuhanyo woman. Inuyasha turned his head. "No, I have an idea. Hear me out."
A/N: Well, that escalated quickly! If you had "Kagome gets kidnapped" on your IY Trope Bingo Card, then you can mark that off! Heheheh.
Stick around for the exciting chapter! Also, the review monster is ever hungry. Please feed him.