Crusade Against the Moon
Chapter Eleven : Under the Chestnut Tree
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor the characters from the show.
WARNING: Minor character death, violence, gore, and blood.
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Kagome didn't see the young couple cry in relief. She didn't see them stumble and run into the woods for dear life. The gurgling echoed in her ears, the sight of her arrow hitting flesh seared into her mind over and over. She stumbled back… another shout echoed somewhere far off. She pulled another arrow from her quiver, turning her body in deadly precision as she released another blow, killing another man as a family stumbled and escaped. Over and over.
How many people had she killed? How much time had gone by? Without thinking, she reached behind her, fingers flexing for another arrow. They flexed, and flexed again. Reaching further back, arching her back, she hit the rim of her quiver. Realization dawned that she'd used every one up. Her fingers came back empty, and she stared dumbly down at them, twitching red with splinters and blood, raw from overuse. Her vision blurred. 'What...what?!'
Before she could sink into the abyss of what she had done… she heard the sounds of children screaming, crying, and her innate compulse to protect took over, making her numb legs run towards the sounds, gathering children into her arms. The thicket of soldiers grew thinner, and she continued gathering the little ones without thought. The need to protect coursed through her veins. She ushered them to hold each others hands when she could hold no more and ran with them to the protection of the trees.
The woods kept the vicinity dark around them, yet the burning village could still be seen. Children of different ages huddled before Kagome, most of them inconsolable. Tears and scrunched faces gathered around her, some stared with stunned eyes as the flames roared in the distance, others hiccuped as they hugged their tattered clothes. Their cries crippled her heart.
Every once in a while, a random villager would run by them, not once stopping to attend the children.
"Sshhhh," Kagome tried, "you're safe now, it's going to be okay." That only managed to calm a small handful of them. She wrapped her arms around as much of them as she could, rocking and soothing them short from hysteria. The rest kept crying in the darkness, the violence they saw replaying in their minds as it did for Kagome.
Scrunching her eyes, she reached over the head of a brown haired girl in her arms to pull a little chubby faced toddler towards her. His cheeks and eyes were red and raw from crying. "You're okay now," she repeated. Hopelessness settling in, how was she supposed to console them? They needed to quiet down or else a samurai would find them.
She felt the wound on her back from the cave burn and bleed from stretching her arms around the children. The pain bunched her muscles tight. She scrunched her eyes, trying her best to ignore it. There were more alarming things that needed attention.
Through the echoing screams and roaring flames, Kagome heard a child near the edge of her group console themselves by humming a song she recognized. It brought her back to her childhood, when she had short hair and kids picked on her last for games. She closed her eyes, realizing the difference in the two situations. Oh, how she had taken so much for granted.
Eyes stinging, she closed her mouth and joined them. "Hmmmm~mmmm~hmmm..." A few kids lowered their voices, sniffling as they tried to listen over the destruction of their village. She felt them cuddling closer, creating a comforting warmth against the cool of the night. "Hmmm~mmmm~hmmm," a new voice joined, and then another, and another.
She let them set the tone, the cries almost completely gone now, and she turned back to the recesses of her mind, finding the lyrics she hadn't heard in years. Innocence, a simple life, no real worries, a childhood lightness lost to adulthood. For a moment, she felt free.
"Under the spreading chestnut tre~e,
There we sit, both you and me~e."
Voices joined her quietly, the screams from the village drowning behind them with their song. Their young voices echoed with hers in the thick of the dark. A heartbreakingly eerie quality to them.
She ached for Inuyasha. Was he okay? He'd been shot so many times. It'd been years since she'd seen him lose so much blood. She couldn't remember a time where he'd ever been fired at. Bullets… a new technology to this time.
The need to go back to him burned inside her. She needed to protect him, even though he protected her the whole night. She couldn't just abandon him.
She swallowed thickly, she couldn't abandon these children either.
"Oooh how happy we will be~e," they continued singing.
"Under the spreading
Chestnut tree."
A silence followed, deep and dark, and spreading through the trees and into the burning village where so many lives had been lost. Wooden beams collapsed, fires continued to roar.. bodies perished.
All sounds drowned out as she kept thinking about the lyrics of the nursery rhyme. The kids started the verse again quietly, and continued to the last lines: "Oh how happy we will be, under the spreading chestnut tre~e."
The parallels of the song struck strong with her. Happiness, the chestnut tree, the Goshinboku. What were the odds?
But, it pulled on a wish so dear to her, a wish she still wanted, and she had been so close.
She wanted to be happy by Inuyasha's side. Naraku was gone, everything was supposed to be good now! They were supposed to be together, enjoying each other, having the relationship the well stole from them three years ago. They should have been able to relax under the boughs of the Goshinboku.
Tears washed down her face and mingled in a little ones tangled locks, but she kept quiet as her body shook, she couldn't show these kids how hurt she was. She needed to be strong for them, their pillar of hope.
Taking in a shaky breath, she swallowed, calming herself down a bit. "Yes," she whispered, "good." They were quiet now, a few hiccups and sniffles here and there. "You're safe now."
A crash to the side startled them, some kids wailed out. A woman pushed herself off the ground, twigs and leaves crunched underneath her. "Owww," she groaned. She was a mess, just like the rest of them. Hair mussed, kimono torn and burned. Dirt covered her skin.
A gruff yell cut through the air. "Kagomeee!"
The time traveler's disheveled form straightened. "Inuyashaaa!" Her cry was instinctual. Was he okay? Did he need her? Was he looking for her?
Quickly, Kagome helped the woman up, "please, can you watch the children?"
The woman looked back and forth from them like she was going to say no. "Please," Kagome begged, "I have to go back to the village!" The stranger shook her head and backed away. Kagome launched herself at her, hands clutching her robes, "please," she repeated, "just for a moment!"
With a powerful shove, Kagome was pushed to the ground hard; shocked as she looked up at the villager. Tears spilled over her pale cheeks again. She was going to leave. What would become of Inuyasha?
"I can't," the woman declared, "I need to get away! There are still -"
"Momma!"
The crowd behind Kagome broke, the small girl she had been hugging ran up to her mother, latching to her leg. She cried an uncontrollable desperate sound. Kagome watched as the mother crumpled around her, both crying from relief.
Were families really running away, not bothering to check the welfare of their children? Kagome bit back the bitter feeling welling in her chest. She had begged the woman to stay, she had seen the children around her, but she hadn't spared a moment to check if her daughter was there.
Closing her eyes in a quick moment, Kagome forced a calm breath into her lungs, then gently released it. She still had a goal in mind, and she would see it through.
Waving her arms, Kagome motioned for the children to get close, wrapping them around the reunited little family. "Stay with them," she directed. The mother raised her startled eyes, realizing what Kagome had done.
"I promise, I'll return shortly." The woman shook her head, but Kagome knew. She was a mother. There was no way she'd leave these children now. She departed with a soft smile. "I promise."
*~-CAM-~*
It was a night of many firsts. First time getting soaked with blood, first time witnessing an infant and mother slaughtered, first time seeing Inuyasha shot, first time seeing a village crumble to ash.
Before, in the battles with Naraku, they usually witnessed the destruction after. Seeing it happen first hand was something jarring Kagome found she'd never forget.
She worked hard to keep it at the back of her mind. She needed to find him.
"Inuyaaaashaaa!"
Thrusting her senses out, Kagome felt a tug to her soul on the right far behind the village. She swallowed her dry throat, ready to shout until she heard him respond with her name in return. Her heart managed to skip a beat. "I'm coming!" She responded.
It only took a few minutes until she heard him grunting, and heard bodies hitting the floor. She ran by burning crumpling homes, so many of them with caved in roofs, walls completely decimated. Burned and cut up bodies littered the ground. Embers fell around her like burning wisps of snow. She wiped her burning eyes, willing the images from her mind as she made a sharp turn towards the golden eyed man that centered her.
Silver locks stained in red burst through the darkness in front of her. A wide swing of Inuyasha's sword, an enormous shout, and he cut down twenty men in the blink of an eye. Their bodies crumpled before her and she stared in shock, still not used to the sight of her people dying. But… were they really her people? Could she really count these samurai that killed innocents as her own?
*~-CAM-~*
Inuyasha felt like he was mindlessly hacking away at people. A whole village to protect from samurai was proving to be an incredibly daunting task. Shortly after, those same soldiers awoke and stumbled with undead eyes towards him, reminding him of the creatures he and Kagome had faced in the caves.
"Kagome!"
He looked around frantically for her, glowing golden eyes darting this way and that. His sharp sight caught the fletching of her arrows lodged in a samurai's throat, then another, and another. Inuyasha had to swallow the lump of guilt rising in his throat.
She had never killed humans before.
Kagome had left her safe world full of metal moving contraptions to be here with him, and this is what she had done to survive, all because of him. 'I'll make it up to her,' he swore to himself, 'no matter what.'
Inuyasha's wounds burned, and with Kagome out of sight, he had no idea what had become of her. After moments of defeating countless men, panic began to overtake him. He needed to protect her. She'd only been here for a little over a week. He'd be damned if anything happened to her.
Suddenly, Kagome's hands hovered over his arms, his shoulders, his chest, then finally cupped his face. "Inuyasha," her voice crumbled, "are you okay?"
He sheathed his Tessaiga and wrapped his hands around her shoulders. "Kagome, are you hurt?" Intense golden eyes roamed over her. She couldn't even answer him, her mind still in shock.
Inuyasha's nose twitched, making sure the blood on Kagome wasn't hers. But he smelled it, the iron from her body spreading somewhere on her skin. Without thinking, he spun her around, pulling the back of the kimono he'd given her down her back. She gasped, clutching the front of her outfit and tried to pull away, "Inuyasha!"
She'd been gone for so long. The scent of her blood made him panic. The kimono he gave her was covered in stains of red blood and black ash. He acted on instinct. She whimpered from his administrations, but this was for her own good. He needed to make sure she was okay, whether she liked it or not. He needed to protect her.
The scrape on her back was smaller than before, but had reopened. The tare spread fresh blood down her spine. Humiliated, she clutched at the clothes around her, tears running down her face.
His guilt was thick on his lips. "Does it hurt?" She felt his fingers linger on the edges of her torn flesh, so tender, so careful.
"No," she lied. With all her adrenaline, at first it hadn't, but now, it stung so bad as the hot ashen air hit it. She managed to maneuver herself around his arms, tugging her ruined kimono back over her chest. "How about you?"
His response was immediate, and he gritted out a "tch" through clenched teeth. But she noticed the sag of his shoulders, the bruise on his chin, the blood spilling over the dried bullet holes on his fire rat, the cut on his forearm. He was spreading himself too thin. They needed to wrap this up now.
"I need to get those bullets out."
He pulled a clawed hand towards his chest, "so that's what they're called."
She grabbed his hand, pulling it to her heart. "Is it done?" Was it safe? Could they leave now?
"It will be with your help." He watched her with tired eyes. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but the bullet wounds were killing him something fierce, like when Sesshomaru had gouged a hole into his stomach. He was so done. His sight was becoming unfocused, blurry, he feared for what might happen.
He'd heard of the warring factions that burned through Japan. Several Shogun rose up in an attempt to claim Japan with brute force for their Emperors. Then Buddhist monks and Shinto priests and priestesses fought over religious control. It was all getting too close to home. He doubted their little village next to his forest could make it through all the destruction.
Besides their little band of misfits, there were no warriors there. As much as they liked to feign strength against outsiders, they were only farmers, builders, mothers, daughters, and sons.
Plus, Sango and Miroku were parents now.
In the week and a half, Inuyasha and Kagome had barely spent any meaningful time together. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead down to hers. Regardless, he was damned happy she was there. She was safe. She was with him. Nothing else really mattered. Her presence was all he'd dreamed of for the last three years.
Kagome's heart thundered in her chest. Their relationship was still so new, felt so good. Cheeks heating, her stomach fluttered. How in the world could he pull this reaction from her even in the middle of a battlefield. She twisted her face, rubbing their foreheads intimately, but it was short lived. Moans and groans echoed behind her. She sighed, "here too?"
"Yeah." Inuyasha pulled away, turning towards the battlefield. "They came back after they died. You need to purify them, like last time."
Taking a moment, Kagome swallowed, took a breath, then slowly turned to where Inuyasha was looking. The sight of the mother and infant still fresh on her mind, she really didn't want to face the destruction of the village. But she had a job to do. She needed to put these people and soldiers to rest. A deep inhale, and she opened her eyes.
It was different from last time. These creatures were not rotting away, there were no maggots tearing at their flesh. They were burnt, dead samurai and civilians. Inuyasha had done a number on them. They were cut in two, their upper halves struggling to get near the tired couple. Some were still walking; arrows, daggers, and swords sticking out of their bodies. Some were completely burned, their skin falling off muscle, hair shriveled to ash. It was grotesque. She could physically smell them.
Then she remembered, "I'm out of arrows."
"You don't need 'em," Inuyasha growled. "Burn 'em," he declared, pressing his body behind hers and lifting her arms as he had once done at the cave grotto. He gave her no room for fear, for weakness. He instilled her with strength, with power, with a safety net she had craved for three lonely years.
Burn 'em, he said. What a choice of words.
The haunting thought left her mind as she concentrated on pulling her power. She was still not used to this. It was still new, still all based on instinct, trial, and error; she needed more training. All she had learned was putting up barriers, but she still had a long way to go with that as well, especially with Inuyasha being able to tear hers down with a single swing of Red Tessaiga.
She knew she could do it. She focused on her center, the source of her power, but flashes of the murdered mother and infant broke through her mind, the arrows she lodged in human flesh ripped through her soul. She was tainted. What kind of miko killed people?
Her inner turmoil clouded her mind, her resolve, her actions. She reeled back on Inuyasha, "I can't," she said with a wavering voice.
"Yes," he grit out, "you can."
Kagome shook her head and lowered her hands, grasping them together at her chest. "You don't know what I did," she cried, the guilt suffocating her mind.
Inuyasha left her no room for argument. He wrapped his arms around her tightly from behind, his face pressing into her cheek and neck with absolution. "I saw, Kagome." His words came out hushed, quiet. "It was either samurai, or innocent families."
Kagome convulsed in his embrace, guilt wracking her whole body, tears burning down her face like the fires destroying the homes and families around them.
"I didn't want to," she cried, shaking her head side to side. Her face was a mess, snot and tears and ash marring her once porcelain skin.
"I know," he whispered, a rare gentle sound leaving his mouth, consoling her in ways she never thought possible. Inuyasha's arms remained around her, he pulled her back with him, one step at a time until they had enough space between the undead. "You had no choice, ya hear me?"
She allowed herself to be taken by him, shaking her head in denial at first, thinking there was some way she could have saved everyone, but then nodding at the end. He was right. They had both tried everything they could. Several tears trailed down her face before she finally admitted to him, "you're right." Her body shook in sorrow and leaned down over his arms in grief. They both did what they could.
You can't save everyone.
He squeezed her tightly in his arms, then released her slowly, keeping his hands on her upper arms.
"I might pass out like last time," she admitted, giving him fair warning to catch her if she dropped. "I'm not used to expending so much energy."
"It's fine," he answered as she raised her hands, he could feel her aura growing, sparking, building up in her body, ready to release. "I've got cha."
That was all Kagome needed to unfurl her spiritual powers. The sudden explosion from her blew their hair back, lighting the field before them, enveloping the undead in a rush of her pink shining essence. Her stance faltered and she took a step back, leaning more on Inuyasha as she made sure every creature that needed purifying was taken over. She could feel a drop of sweat rolling down her face, her eyes blurred, spots crawled into her vision, she felt a rush of cold run over her limbs before her arms fell, and she collapsed on Inuyasha, out cold.
Inuyasha gathered her in his arms protectively, lowering her to his knee as he gathered the rest of her body up and looked over at the field before them. To say he was in awe was a complete understatement. He was utterly, undeniably proud of the small woman in his arms. Never in their past had she been able to display such a great amount of power. With Naraku, his minions, and the jewel gone, she was finally able to use her untapped potential. He could only imagine how much more she could do with some actual training.
Since the soldiers and the villagers had recently died, their bodies didn't shatter to ash. They littered the muddy grown before him, still as death, the glow of the fires lighting them this way and that, soot falling to them and caking the ground. This was it, they were done.
Finally.
Inuyasha stood with Kagome in his arms, he stumbled a bit before regaining his footing. His sight was still blurring, his bullet ridden torso screamed in protest, his arm ached something agonizing. He grit his teeth, there was no way he was staying in this destroyed village, so he forced himself to walk, pushing through the pain. His hair billowed around him from the force of the flames, a short cough escaping him as he took slow steps out of the destruction. Already nearing the edge, a white slip of paper fluttering on a gnarled tree caught his eye. He walked to it, noticing it's singed edges immediately, and grabbed it with a clawed hand, making sure not to jostle Kagome.
A sutra.
*~-CAM-~*
(A/N)
Holy shmokey everyone. Do you even remember this fic? I meant to put this chapter up at the end of August last year, but the ending was proving difficult to wrap up. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone that is still sticking with it! I finally finished college so I have all the time in the world to finally work on this! And welcome to any new readers! Things are slowly coming together! Who is writing the sutras? Who were the villagers giving Kagome the stink eye? Where is Kohaku? When will InuKag have their talk?! Fret not, all your questions will be answered in due time. Stay safe, and please review!