A/N: Thank you reviewers Western White Tiger, Lorien Legacy and the guest for their kind comments in the previous chapter. Because of Kikyou's early revival in this story, the plot is advancing at a quicker pace than in canon. For one, Inuyasha has a stronger motivation to pursue the Shikon shards. For two, and this is a very important one, Naraku is making his moves earlier, and with greater emphasis on targeting Inuyasha and luring Kikyou. This has so far led to an earlier encounter with Miroku and Sesshoumaru, and because of the early surfacing of Inuyasha's demon side, the outcome of the Sesshoumaru/Inuyasha battle is tweaked in that you can consider Sesshoumaru to be considerably more wounded here than in canon. There will indeed be some rippling effects as a result of these accumulated changes. Thanks a bunch for the questions! I really appreciate them, so if you have anything else you would like to ask, please ask away! With that said, here is the next chapter, which introduces the next arc in Kikyou's story. Inuyasha's side will also enter a new arc in chapter 10. The completion of those arcs will lead to their reunion, so stay tuned!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
A Different Journey
The story of Inuyasha, and the miko he loved who had survived death
Chapter 9
Kochou arrived at the Taijiya village as instructed by Kikyou. Incapacitated in the fight against the locust youkai, Kikyou had sent Kochou here to seek the demon slayers' aid in ridding the remaining lesser locusts which might attack town while Kikyou was down.
"Miko Kikyou you say?" The Taijiya leader was surprised when Kochou explained the situation. "I have heard rumours that she has been revived, but I had not expected them to be true. And to be revived by the senki of the Shikon – her power was said to be strong fifty years ago, I reckon she is only stronger now. We will need every bit of that strength to quell the present youkai threat that has plagued the nation ever since the Shikon resurfaced. We Taijiya will lend whatever effort we can spare to aid her cause."
Kochou bowed. "That is all we ask. My Lady has exterminated the nest of the locust youkai, but few may remain and attack the town under her protection. My fellow shikigami is currently guarding the town, but her power and mine are wavering with My Lady's waning strength. We require assistance in the town's protection while My Lady recovers."
The Taijiya leader pondered. He looked around his village where men and women busied themselves with preparations for a large expedition – they had been summoned by the local daimyou, Lord Hitomi, in exterminating a spider youkai at his castle. Although only their best would go, even the non-combatants were called to help stock the rations and prepare the weapons. Such was the scale of their task, one they could not afford to fail.
"I would go myself to the miko's side if not for Lord Hitomi's summon," the Taijiya leader explained, "But as it stands, I cannot turn down the summon. Rest assured, however, that though I cannot respond with an entourage of significant numbers, I will send my best to her aid. Sango!"
At her father's call, a young woman of tall, lean stature came up to them. She was dressed in tight black robes and crimson armour, hair held up in a tight ponytail. In her hand she sported a large boomerang fashioned from youkai bone.
"Sango, you are to aid Miko Kikyou in exterminating the remaining locust youkai in the north and transporting the miko to safety where she can recover. This shikigami here will be your guide. You may take Kirara with you."
Sango looked stunned by her father's decision. "But…"
Her father caught Sango's eyes wandering to where her younger brother, Kohaku, was preparing their bags for the summon to Lord Hitomi's castle. It would be Kohaku's first job, so the Taijiya leader understood Sango's concern. His daughter had always been a doting sister. "Do not worry, I shall take good care of Kohaku. The Lord will not allow an amateur performance from the Taijiya at any rate, and I shall not give him any reason to complain."
"I see…" Sango sighed. "Alright. I shall first secure Miko Kikyou and the village in the north, then I shall join the rest of you at the castle."
The Taijiya leader nodded. "Good. If in the reverse situation where we finish the job first and you have yet to return, we will assemble a party to assist you. I do believe you will successfully complete the task before we have the chance to reach you though."
"Thank you for your confidence in me, Father. I shall do my best."
With that, Sango retrieved her cat youkai familiar, Kirara, and headed off with Kochou. Kirara had transformed into her large flying form, so it did not take too long for Kochou and Sango to reach the northern village under siege by a dozen persistent giant locusts. While Asuka's barrier had kept them out of the village thus far, the film of blue energy was wavering – it was only a matter of time that it would fall.
Sango judged the situation. Though it might appear an impossible battle for a common person, or even an army of troops, she knew she could handle this. These dozen locusts did not seem to have a leader. As such, they held no formation, so it would not be too difficult to pick them off one by one. Sango went after the slowest, urging Kirara to chase it till within range of her hiraikotsu. A good throw was all it took to take down the locust, much to the awe of the watching villagers. She caught the hiraikotsu mid-air and rode through the scattered remains of the locust that rained down, using them to shield her approach on another locust. Once again, she threw her boomerang at an arc, this time not only taking down her primary target, but caught the wing of another locust nearby. As the injured locust dropped, Kirara darted forth to finish it with a bite.
Sango and Kirara worked seamlessly together, their movements but streaks of flaming light in the skies. Within minutes, the dozen locusts were all blasted from the air, lying in tatters on the ground. Kirara landed to the applause of the villagers, who had rushed out of the barrier Asuka lowered.
"Thank you, Young Lady, for saving us. We are indebted to you."
"It would have been bad if you hadn't arrived in time. Miko Kikyou's shikigami had protected us for a long time, but the barrier was wavering and we were so scared it would fall."
"Speaking of which, did Miko Kikyou send you to our aid? We hope she is doing alright. She headed off to exterminate the locust nest."
Sango nodded to the comment. "From my understanding, Miko Kikyou has exterminated the nest, so worry not for any further attacks from the locusts. Miko Kikyou is now currently injured, and I will bring her back. In my absence, please help me remove the steel wings from the locust youkai. They will be useful for the Taijiya village and I would like to take them back with me as payment."
"Of course. We will do whatever is required of us in exchange for your help," a village elder said. Satisfied with the answer, Sango bid them farewell and sped off after her guides, Kochou and Asuka. The job so far had progressed smoothly. She hoped to reach Kikyou before sundown and rejoin her father by night.
Kochou and Asuka led them across devastated farmlands until reaching a barren field painted gold by the sun hovering just above the horizon. Sango easily spotted Kikyou by the lengthened shadow she cast in this light and urged Kirara to land. She had heard about Miko Kikyou from her father when she was young and the miko lived up to his descriptions, beautiful and fair with silk-smooth raven hair, dignified in stature and her keen mahogany gaze. In their conversation with Kochou, Sango had learned that Miko Kikyou had been revived by the Shikon's senki. At first, she couldn't comprehend the exact meaning. Now she knew. Miko Kikyou looked perhaps a bit older than herself, certainly not the sixty, seventy-some years that she should be. An immortal human. Though Sango had witnessed her fair share of the mystical in her travels as a demon slayer, she had got to admit that this was the first time she had met a sage.
"Are you with the Taijiya?" Kikyou asked the approaching young woman.
"Yes," Sango replied. "The name is Sango. I have been sent here to your aid, Miko Kikyou."
Kikyou tried to smile, though the pain in her ribs wasn't letting her do much. She might no longer be mortal, but quick regeneration had limits, and recovering broken ribs and a collapsed lung would take some time. She should really be glad to be alive – her old self would not have survived the impact. Sango surveyed the extent of the injuries and was clearly surprised by their severity. "You need not care for my wounds," Kikyou explained. "They will heal in time. It is just that at the moment, I cannot move from this spot."
Sango frowned at the way Kikyou downplayed the injuries. "I suppose the Shikon's senki is keeping you alive, but please do not be so nonchalant about this, Milady. I will stabilize the ribs and transport you to the village, but you must rest till you fully recover. And do not again put yourself in such danger. As a fellow demon slayer, I know it is impossible to avoid all risks, but this looks to me like you took an attack head-on with your own body. This is just too much. I would not even allow our full youkai familiars to do the same."
Kirara seemed to agree, meowing after Sango. She lowered her head beside Kikyou as Sango tried to stabilize Kikyou's injury with what she carried on her travel pack. Though Kirara was usually friendly to humans, Sango wondered why she seemed particularly comfortable with Kikyou. Was it the Shikon's influence? Sango heard that Kirara had once been the familiar of Midoriko, the miko's soul which sealed the Demon of Demons within the Shikon-no-Tama. Did Kirara recognize the Shikon's senki as a remnant of Midoriko?
Sango's thoughts were cut short when Kirara perked up and growled to something rumbling in the distance. Horses. Sango heard hoofs galloping towards them. Kikyou, too, turned her head as much as she could without disturbing her injuries towards what was approaching them. "I sense jaki," she said.
Sango narrowed her eyes. "More locusts? But why the horses?"
"Not locusts. Souls. I sense the souls of the dead, tainted by jaki."
Soon, Sango could see them. A band of horseback soldiers were darting their way, but their faces were expressionless, eyes glazed with white. The horses, too, moved with a strange gait. So these were the undead? How?
"Not long ago, I exterminated a leech youkai that fed off souls nearby. It had controlled shinidamachuu to do its bidding. Perhaps someone had taken advantage of the situation, stolen the souls, and used them to power clay soldiers such as these," Kikyou said.
"And why are they here? What are they after?"
"I do not know, but this is too much a string of coincidences. I had suspicions why the locusts were able to obtain so many Shikon shards, and now after I am weakened from fighting them, we are attacked by clay soldiers in the middle of nowhere? I believe this is a trap designed for me."
"Well, I suppose whatever their intentions, I shall deliver they fight they are asking for." Sango climbed atop Kirara once more and sped towards the clay soldiers to stop them from reaching Kikyou. She threw her hiraikotsu, but the horse parted out of its way. Kirara followed through however, filling the gap in Sango's attack. She smashed head-first into a clay horse and soldier, sending them shattering in a cloud of shouki. The miasma made Kirara growl in pain, though she was mostly immune to it as a powerful youkai herself. Sango, however, was thrown back by the corrosive fumes that burnt her trachea despite that she was wearing a protective mask. It must be more volatile than her mask could withstand.
Kirara landed and nudged Sango to climb off her back while she readied herself for the next attack. "Are you sure?" Sango asked Kirara, fearing her safety. Kirara nodded its head with a soft meow, then charged off towards the closest opponent. Sango retreated to Kikyou's side.
"Here, take this," Kikyou said, handing Sango her Shikon shards as the growing plume of miasma with Kirara's destruction of the clay soldiers drifted their way. "I am too weak to purify the shouki at this moment, but the Shikon shards will protect you."
"But what about you? Even the Shikon's senki cannot protect against everything, especially when it is already acting to secure your life. Like I said, you cannot keep taking such risks! We should retreat."
"Is there not a reason why your father sent you alone to aid me, Sango? I would venture to guess he and your village's best are currently handling another extermination. I have heard that demons have grown more numerous and powerful since the Shikon resurfaced. Even if we retreat, we have nowhere to go, as there will be no reinforcements with all demon slayers occupied by the rising threats. We will merely be giving these clay soldiers a chance to plunder the towns we vowed to protect."
Sango faced forward to where Kirara was fighting the soldiers bravely despite the miasma. More than half fell already, but the leader, one of long white hair and narrow black eyes, was avoiding even her swiftest attacks and slashing back ferociously with a long sword. An expert sweep of the blade caught Kirara's side and sent her crashing down to the ground. It was not too deep a hit, but enough to hinder Kirara's movements, confining her to the land and weakening her with blood loss. Sango bit her teeth together, frustrated that though she wished to run forward to Kirara's side now, she couldn't just abandon the incapacitated Kikyou.
"If my deduction is correct and this is really a trap designed for me, they would not have expected you to be here, meaning they have sent such a small group to attack me because they expected me to have been rendered incapable of combat. This is our only chance to win. If we retreat here, the next time we meet, we will not be meeting such a small band, but an entire army. After all, what is the big difference, to fashion with demon magic ten clay soldiers or a hundred?"
"Damn it!" Sango cursed under her breath. Convinced by Kikyou's words, she dashed forth to engage the clay general of white hair. The miasma was already thick where Kikyou was – it made little difference when Sango neared the soldiers. The pink glow Kikyou had imparted on the Shikon shards shone true even in this purple mist, staying pure, protecting Sango from the miasma. With Kirara's help bringing down a horse with a bite, Sango finished the last fallen clay trooper with a jab of her hiraikotsu, which she then threw at the remaining general.
The general pulled the reins on his horse to stop it short from the hiraikotsu's course. When the boomerang neared him, he cut at it with his sword. Though the hiraikotsu was too sturdy to be broken by the blade, it was knocked off to the side, out of Sango's reach.
"You are a skillful warrior. I, Kawaramaru, shall honour you by learning your name before your death," the general said, charging towards Sango with his horse. Kirara desperately ran to Sango's aid, but was not fast enough. However, Sango stood still with no fear.
"The name is Sango, but you need not remember it, for you will be the one to die again today."
Sango lashed out her iron chain to catch the horse's front leg. In a display of strength that was almost unhuman, she pulled the horse down with her bare hands, causing it to crash the ground and shatter to clay and miasma. Kawaramaru was undeterred, rolling only a short distance before coming to stand again. Sango was upon him with a wakizashi, though Kawaramaru easily intercepted it with a drawn katana. There were sparks in their swordfight. Sango was skilled, but Kawaramaru stronger, powered by demon magic. Even when Kirara reached them and helped Sango with the fight, Kawaramaru parried, pushing them towards where Kikyou was.
"You are no match for me, Woman. You do know that?" Kawaramaru chided. He locked sword with Sango, inching his blade upon her. The longer range of his katana meant that while Sango's wakizashi could not yet reach him, the tip of his blade was encroaching on Sango. Just when it was about to cut below Sango's shoulder armour, Kirara pounced, forcing Kawaramaru back. He evaded Kirara and rounded her towards Kikyou, but Sango would not let him advance, slashing towards Kawaramaru's back. Kawaramaru turned to block the wakizashi.
"Your opponent is me!" Sango declared.
"A stubborn one, aren't you? Why so desperate to protect the miko? I take quite a liking to you. Join me. Become my soldier and become my concubine. I shall lavish you with riches the like your demon-slaying clan can never afford."
"Never in this life or the next!"
Sango pushed off Kawaramaru's katana. It slipped towards her with tremendous speed, but she side-stepped it, closed the distance with a lunge, and stabbed towards Kawaramaru. He moved back, his step so fast it was akin a flash. Sango grit her teeth in frustration, thinking she didn't touch him, but when a thin tendril of shouki escaped from a nick in Kawaramaru's robes, she knew she had in fact landed a hit.
Kawaramaru made a disgruntled sound akin a "tich". He glanced back to where Kikyou was, lying only steps away, before meeting Sango again. Sango thought she saw an opening when Kawaramaru's eyes wandered, making a big, crescent slash at him that should've cleaved him in half from head down. To her surprise, Kawaramaru seemed to have foreseen the attack, evading cleanly, and using the second Sango was rendered out of position to throw his katana in an impossible trajectory made possible by youki. It hit an unsuspecting Kirara, who had been slowed from her blood loss. She had blocked a fatal hit to the head with her paws, but now the sword stuck itself in her front leg, incapacitating her.
"Kirara!" Sango shouted, running to her cat youkai familiar. It was Kawaramaru's chance to reach Kikyou. By the time Sango assessed Kirara's injuries and confirmed she was okay, Kawaramaru already had Kikyou in a choke hold. Recognizing Kawaramaru's hit on Kirara was just a diversion, Sango snarled, picking up her hiraikotsu to ready it for a throw.
"You coward…" Sango's grip on the hiraikotsu shook with her anger. Kawaramaru only laughed.
"All is fair in battle. Now, though I have been disarmed and you can hit me with your boomerang, I would advise otherwise. You realized earlier you had cut me by the shouki that came from my wound, correct? Imagine if you smash my body open and all that shouki leaks out to bathe your miko friend here. I don't know how she has been able to withstand the miasma thus far after giving up the pure Shikon shards for your protection, but even she must be at a limit, am I right?"
"Do not use me as a bargaining chip…" Kikyou muttered against Kawaramaru's steel grip. "Tell me, what is your goal? Why the elaborate scheme just to capture me?"
"So you figured out that we are behind the shinidamachuu-controlling leech and the locusts? I suppose it does not hurt to admit this now. Yes, it is all a scheme to capture you. Who would think a man would be so lovesick as to exchange Shikon shards for a woman? But now that I have witnessed your beauty with my own eyes, I can see why that is so, though if it were me I would rather keep the Shikon shards for myself and simply capture you by my own strength as I am doing now. The man is stupid, isn't he? I doubt Mother would really give you up to the fool, as you have far greater use than a bed warmer. What can be more pleasing than making the very Guardian of the Shikon-no-Tama a mindless slave in our quest to complete the jewel? Imagine the colour of the tainted gem you shall collect for us. They do say the greatest evil is fashioned from the greatest good…"
There was bitterness in Kikyou's smile as though she had just realized something. Clenching her teeth, she reached her hand into her sleeve for a concealed dagger. "You are right. Good is evil, as evil is good. Clean is dirty, as dirty is clean."
Sango widened her eyes in shock as she witnessed Kikyou drawing the dagger and plunging it into Kawaramaru's side. The clay cracked. Kawaramaru's expression froze as the fracture lines slithered across his body to his face, finally causing it to splinter. "Noooooooooooooo!" Sango screamed, but to no avail. The last she saw in Kikyou's eyes was a red conviction before the miko fell to a plume of miasma.
End of Chapter - reviews appreciated
