Chapter 2: Enter the Blind Seer
Inuyasha sat in the comforting arms of a tall tree contemplating the stars. Beneath him, the others lay sleeping. He preferred camping out in the open to staying in human buildings, mainly because it was easier to hear or smell enemies when they were close, although avoiding the dishonest means Miroku used to get quarters for the night ran a very close second. Below him, interestingly enough, Kagome had chosen to roll out her strange-looking bedroll in just the perfect spot to allow him to gaze on her all night if that was his desire. Miroku and Sango each slept not more than a few feet to either side of her and, as usual, Shippō was lying with his head on Kagome's slender shoulder, giving Inuyasha an inexplicable stab of jealousy. Not that it mattered who Kagome slept with, Inuyasha reminded himself. Besides, Shippō was a good deal younger than Kagome was so she couldn't possibly have been interested in him in "that way," anyway. Not that that mattered, either.
With a half-suppressed growl, the pale-haired hanyō pushed the thoughts aside. Kagome had made it abundantly clear that she wasn't about to allow him to set limits on her life. All it took was a well-placed "sit" and she would be off doing whatever it was that he didn't want her to do anyway, leaving Inuyasha to work the kinks out of his neck again. Absently, he reached up with his free hand and felt the beads of the rosary around his neck for perhaps the hundredth time since the day he'd been forced to wear it.
Abruptly, a series of sudden distant crashes, like the sound of giant steel blades tearing through wood, dispersed Inuyasha's thoughts as easily as paper on the wind. Sitting up as straight as he could on his lone branch, the dog-hanyō sniffed the air, his ears twitching continuously until the moment the sounds ceased. The first thing he smelled was dust and smoke, followed immediately by the coppery smell of blood, the all-too-familiar smell of death and a strange smell he didn't recognize. Last of all, however, and the one smell that raised the hairs on the back of his neck, was the stench of Naraku.
'Damn,' Inuyasha thought bleakly, 'I'd better go check.'
Briefly, Inuyasha considered waking the others, quickly discarding the idea. Kagome often brought a lot of things with her and they generally took a while to reassemble. By the time she was ready, Naraku would probably be gone. His second option, to wake Miroku, was also quickly thrust aside. If he left the lecherous monk in charge of the camp, he would return to two very upset females. Sometimes the monk didn't know when to keep his hands to himself. After only a second's hesitation, he grasped Sango by the shoulders and gently shook her, jumping back a pace as the demon slayer's eyes snapped open, her hand immediately reaching for her hiraikotsu, the large, boomerang-shaped demon bone that served her as a weapon.
"Shh," Inuyasha whispered, squatting near her, "I heard something. Smells like Naraku."
"We'd better wake the…" Sango began.
"There's no time," interrupted Inuyasha curtly, "I'll go check it out myself. You guard the camp 'til I get back."
"All right," Sango agreed, shoving herself into a sitting position, "But don't go alone. Take Kirara."
In response to her name, the small double-tailed kitten leaped lightly from the demon slayer's side quickly changing into her battle form, that of a large saber-toothed tiger, when she was a safe distance away. With a single eloquent nod, Inuyasha took off at a run, the now enormous Kirara easily keeping pace at his side. As the smell became stronger, the dog-hanyō leaped into the air to get his bearings. Sure enough, there in the distance, grey against the dark blue of night, he could see a rising column of smoke. Needing no further incentive than that, Inuyasha poured on the speed, running as fast as his legs would carry him, with Kirara following only slightly slower.
Within fifteen minutes, Inuyasha had arrived at the source of the smells. Already, what few buildings there were had been effectively leveled. Several of the fallen timbers were burning, a blaze he guessed had probably started when the dry wood the buildings were made out of had come into contact with cooking fires burning inside. A few minutes' search brought Inuyasha at last to the place where the scent, or scents as it turned out, of Naraku was strongest. Inuyasha growled frustration as he realized that neither of them were purely Naraku. Of the two separate scents Inuyasha could find, one was like Naraku, except that it smelled strangely clean. That was Hakudoshi, youngest of Naraku's "children." The other was reminiscent of Naraku in a field of wildflowers with the wind blowing through them. That was Kagura, Naraku's second born, a highly independent-minded wind sorceress. Regrettably, neither one seemed to be in the vicinity.
"Damn it!" bellowed Inuyasha in frustration, "I wasn't fast enough!"
'Ah well,' he sighed, 'I guess I better look around and see if I can figure out what they were after.'
Turning, he noticed Kirara digging at one of the burning wrecks. It was obvious she had come to the same conclusion earlier than he had.
'She's found something,' Inuyasha realized suddenly, noticing blue and pink fabric beneath a board Kirara pawed aside. The strange unrecognizable scent he'd noticed previously seemed to originate from there, along with the smell of spilled blood, but not the rot of death. Not waiting for an invitation, the dog-hanyō leaped in next to the huge cat and began impatiently yanking burning boards aside with both hands. Before long, a face had been uncovered, a female face surrounded by a mass of snow-white hair framing a pair of upswept, wing-like ears fringed with tiny, white feathers. In no time, Inuyasha had the female hanyō uncovered. A cursory examination of the girl revealed a number of nasty-looking bruises and a place at the back of her head that was stained with her blood. Otherwise, she seemed unhurt, which wasn't that much of a surprise, if she had demon blood in her.
Carefully, Inuyasha lifted the strange girl in his arms and carried her a few feet away, laying her down in the shade of a nearby willow tree before returning to sniff around the rest of the compound. After a relatively short search, he managed to find three other bodies, a man, a woman, and a child no older than two, all of whom smelled strongly of death.
'Naraku. You bastard!" Inuyasha thought bitterly, 'You'll pay for this, too! I promise you!' With that, he bent to the task of burying the bodies.
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When Kagome awoke the next morning, she was surprised to find that a stranger clutching a tall, carved staff was sitting near the newly rekindled campfire. As she watched, Inuyasha landed in the camp carrying a double handful of rabbits, which he handed to Sango, as usual, for skinning and cleaning. Then he walked over and squatted nonchalantly next to the stranger.
"How's your head?" he asked roughly.
"Much better," the stranger replied cautiously, "Thank you."
"Feh," scoffed Inuyasha.
"And thank you again for rescuing me," the guest added softly.
"Feh," Inuyasha repeated, adding fiercely, "You're safer with us, anyway. Whatever Naraku wants with you, he'll have to fight his way through us first."
Curiosity fought viciously with jealousy until, finally, curiosity won out. Kagome yawned and stretched as obviously as possible without seeming too dramatic before sitting up in her sleeping bag. She wasn't altogether surprised to find that she was the last to wake up. In this day and age, the time to wake up was usually sunrise, whereas, back home, Kagome was more or less use to waking up to the ring of her alarm clock. What was surprising was that Miroku was sitting exactly across the fire from their visitor and sporting a nasty-looking shiner. Looking behind her, Kagome saw that the hiraikotsu boomerang hadn't moved from where Sango had left it the previous night.
"What a beautiful morning," Kagome sighed, unzipping the bag so she could climb out.
"It's about time you woke up," grouched Inuyasha, turning toward her.
"Well, look who got up on the wrong side of the tree this morning," Kagome teased.
"What do you know about it?" Inuyasha retorted, irritated.
"These are ready," Sango interrupted, glaring at the dog-hanyō as she handed him two of the dressed rabbits, now spitted and tied to a number of stout sticks. Carefully, Sango stuck her three into the dirt, leaning them slightly so that the top end of the stick tilted in the direction of the flames. Following her example, Inuyasha did the same with his two on the other side, creating a sort of ring of raw meat around the cheerful little blaze.
Shaking her head, Kagome turned to her backpack and began to search it for a set of clean clothes. Choosing a fresh set of underwear, her blue sweater, her light-blue mini-skirt, a pair of white ankle socks and her loafers, she selected a stand of bushes just the other side of Inuyasha's tree and disappeared into it to change out of her pajamas.
"Perhaps," she heard Miroku say smoothly with a distinct rustle of fabric, "I should go and make sure Lady Kagome remains safe."
"Oh no ya don't," Inuyasha objected loudly. At this she heard another rustle of fabric, followed by a loud thump, which let her know Inuyasha had put paid to the unprincipled monk's peeping plans. "Sango," the dog-hanyō added quietly, "you go." Kagome did her best to suppress a giggle. She was just slipping into her sweater when Sango appeared in the stand of bushes.
"Who's…" Kagome began, sliding quickly into her skirt and zipping it up in back.
"Our visitor?" Sango finished, smiling, "She calls herself Tenkei."
"Oracle, huh?" Kagome mused, "that's an interesting one. What's she doing here?"
"Well," Sango offered in serious tones, handing the younger girl her shoes and socks, "about two hours or so after sunset, Inuyasha heard a noise and smelled something like Naraku. When he returned, she was with him, unconscious. From what I understand, he found her in a wrecked farm house."
"What does Naraku want with her?" Kagome wondered, sitting down on a nearby rock to tug her socks on.
"Well, from what she's told us," Sango replied gravely, "Naraku wanted to learn the places he could find Kikyo. Apparently, she reprimanded him for it."
Completely dressed at last, Kagome smoothed her skirt and stood up, tapping the toes of her shoes against the hard turf to settle them more firmly into place.
"Come on," Sango added with a smile, "I will introduce you." Giggling, the two girls emerged from the bushes and headed back to the fire.
"Tenkei," the demon slayer began, "this is…"
"We have already met," Tenkei interrupted timidly, bowing, "Have we not, Lady Kikyo?" Instantly, Inuyasha's ears perked up. Tenkei put out a hand and, without thinking, Kagome took it.
"Oh," Tenkei gasped when Kagome's skin touched hers, "You are the reincarnated soul. I hope you will forgive me my error. Your souls are so alike."
"It's okay," Kagome smiled hesitantly, feeling more than a little awkward, "Everybody makes the same mistake. I'm used to it."
"You've met Kikyo?" Inuyasha interjected firmly, "Where?"
"I can not tell you that," the blind girl responded quietly, accepting a bamboo bottle of water from Sango, "It does not matter. You will not find her there. You need only know that she is…deciding something."
"Deciding what?" Inuyasha snapped.
"You must learn that answer from her," Tenkei replied decisively, sipping from the bamboo bottle before lifting it up for Sango to take. Reluctantly, Inuyasha subsided.
"How do you know about Kikyo?" Kagome asked, seating herself next to the stranger.
"I…met her only two days ago," Tenkei answered uncomfortably, "I had been injured after seeking shelter in a human village. They discovered my demon blood and decided to…to punish me."
"But how did you know that I'm Kikyo's reincarnation?" Kagome pressed.
"It is a gift I have possessed since birth," Tenkei responded with a shy smile, "The gift to peer into the souls of the living and see the paths of their fate."
"I have heard of such a gift," added the knowledgeable Miroku smoothly, "The ability to see into the future, also called the gift of the crane. It is said to be very rare."
"That it is," agreed Tenkei, "Among humans, it is only possessed by the eyes of the blind. Among my mother's people, the crane demons, it is much more common."
"You're a crane demon?" guessed Kagome, curious, as ever.
"My mother was a greater lord of the crane demons," Tenkei clarified hesitantly, "my father was human." Inuyasha nodded, his face seeming, if it was possible, all the more grim. Kagome remembered Inuyasha's own story, which was similar, if the other way around. "It is a long story," Tenkei added in quiet tones, clutching the staff that lay in her lap that much closer.
"A story?" Shippō grinned, dashing in front of her and placing his tiny hands on her knees, "Could you please tell it? I love stories. I can even draw pictures for you, if you want me to."
"That will not be necessary," Tenkei chuckled, "But if you wish, I will tell it to you as it was told to me." Grinning, Shippō climbed into the newcomer's lap and curled up there. Each of the others settled themselves in various positions around the fire.
"Long ago," Tenkei began when all was quiet, "there lived a sail weaver named Yasuko who lived on a hill near a town on the coast where there were many sailing ships with whom he could ply his trade. He was moderately well off, though unmarried and living by himself.
"One night there was a terrible storm and as Yasuko sat in his house listening to the sound of the rain, he heard another sound like a thump against his roof. That is not rain, he told himself and went to check. There, lying on the ground near to his house was an injured crane. It had broken a wing when the wind had blown it into Yasuko's house.
"Yasuko was a kind hearted man," Tenkei continued softly, "It hurt him to see any living thing in pain, so he took the injured crane into his home and cared for it until it was completely healed, whereupon he released it and it flew away."
"Wow," Kagome sighed, "What a nice guy."
"Are you implying something?" Inuyasha grated.
"Shh," Miroku interrupted, "Let her finish."
"Well," Tenkei went on, "Shortly after the crane left, Yasuko began to realize just how lonely he was, a thing he had never before supposed, and he began to wish for someone to keep him company. A few days later, there was a tapping at his door. When he opened it, he was surprised to find a beautiful woman standing upon his doorstep.
"When he asked her who she was, she told him she was called Tokutomo and that she wished to become his wife. Tokutomo was very beautiful to behold and, though he was uncertain how proper such an arrangement would be, he decided to allow her to stay with him in his house. Within a month, Yasuko knew that he loved the beautiful Tokutomo and soon afterward they were quietly married. After their marriage, they lived very happily for many months.
"However, fate, it seems had other plans for them and they soon fell on hard times. For, though Yasuko;s earnings were enough for him to live on by himself, with a wife, however, it was not enough. Soon they had nothing left.
"One day, Tokutomo offered to weave a magic sail that Yasuko could sell and bring home enough money for them to live on for many more months. The only condition was that there would be a screen before the weaving loom that Yasuko was forbidden to look behind so long as Tokutomo was weaving.
"Yasuko gave his word that he would not look behind the screen and, that noon, Tokutomo began to work. All that afternoon Yasuko could hear the loom working and, at nightfall, he went to bed alone, never allowing himself to wonder what his wife was doing behind the screen. The next morning, Yasuko awoke to find Tokutomo kneeling before him holding a piece of folded sailcloth, which she handed to him. As soon as his fingers touched it, Yasuko knew that, somehow, Tokutomo had woven the very winds into the sail. That day, as Tokutomo had asked, he went into town and sold the magical sail and brought back a small chest full of money, on which they could live well for a long time.
"However, for the next three days, Tokutomo was very ill and could not leave her bed. Yasuko spent many a sleepless night at her side. On the fourth day, however, she seemed fine and all was once again well. Still, fate had not finished with them. On the fifth day after Yasuko sold the magical sail, a rich captain came to his door. He had seen and touched the sail and watched its owner use it. He had even attempted to buy it, without success. Now, he had come to Yasuko to ask that he create another sail just like the first. If he would do so, the captain promised he would give Yasuko so much money that he and his wife would never need to worry about money for the rest of their natural lives. Without thinking, Yasuko agreed."
"Fool," Inuyasha exclaimed, his back to the fire.
"True," Tenkei agreed with a sigh, "That day, he mentioned the offer of the captain to Tokutomo. She pled with him not to ask such a thing of her, for the first had taken much from her and she had not, as yet, completely recovered. Nevertheless, Yasuko would not listen to her pleas and gave Tokutomo no rest until she had agreed.
"At noon that day, Tokutomo once again slipped behind the screen and, once again, the sound of the working loom filled the little house. Night came and went and still Yasuko could hear the loom working. Two more nights passed and still Tokutomo continued to work. Finally, Yasuko could bear it no longer."
"He looked?" gasped Shippō in disbelief..
"Yes," Tenkei responded, sadly, "He looked. He excused the breach of his word by his concern for his wife, who had taken no nourishment for two days and three nights. His true intention, however, was to learn the secret of weaving the magic sailcloth. So, he looked behind the screen. There, he saw, to his great surprise, the crane that he had found injured on his doorstep so long ago. With wings already ragged, it was tearing out feathers one by one and weaving them into the cloth on the loom. Yasuko realized then that his beautiful wife was actually a demon and gasped in shock. When the crane heard Yasuko gasp, it turned and Yasuko saw a single tear drop from its jewel bright eye before, with difficulty, it flew away, never to be seen by him again."
"I love that story," Kagome smiled, "My mom used to tell it to me when I was little."
"It took Tokutomo a month to completely recover from the ordeal she'd undergone, but she never got over Yasuko," Tenkei continued softly, "What Yasuko never knew, though, was that, when Tokutomo left, she was pregnant with his child. The day she rejoined her people, she laid an egg. In due time, from that egg, there hatched a half-human baby."
"You, right?" guessed Inuyasha, understanding in his eyes.
"Yes," Tenkei nodded, "For a hundred years of my life, I have lived with my mother. She cared for and protected me and fought the derision of our people. Unfortunately, about fifty years ago, a demon hunter carrying a powerful weapon challenged and slew my mother. Just before she died, she told me of a debt of honor, owed to her by another greater demon lord, a friend of hers whose life she had saved when they were both much younger. She told me the demon himself was slain about fifty years before I was born. However, he had been blessed with two sons. My mother made me swear to find one of these sons and call in the debt of his father in my mother's name."
"What were their names?" Sango asked, "Perhaps we can help."
"Their names," Tenkei answered meekly, "are Sesshomaru and Inuyasha."
Instantly, Inuyasha shot to his feet. "I am Inuyasha," he said, his back to the group, "What do you want from me?"
"You are Inuyasha?" Tenkei gasped, her eyebrows lifting in pure shock, "Then it would seem you are no longer in my debt. I am in yours." So saying, she brushed Shippō from her lap and prostrated herself in Inuyasha's direction. At the sound, Inuyasha's ears twitched and he turned, a look of suspicious surprise on his face.
"What?" he blinked, backing away a step, "You're kidding, right?"
"Forgive me, Lord Inuyasha," Tenkei sighed, pushing herself back up to seiza position, "I have been searching for you for fifty years. I had heard you were slain by a priestess. I am glad to have heard wrong. I would have sought your brother, Sesshomaru, but given all that I have heard about him, I admit that I doubted he would even hear me speak, let alone honor the debt."
"Yeah, well," Inuyasha admitted, "Sesshomaru ain't exactly a paragon of mercy."
"May I ask," said Miroku smoothly, sidling up next to Sango, "what payment you were going to ask for?"
"My mother told me," Tenkei answered timidly, "to ask you or your brother to guard and watch over me until I reach maturity." At that, Sango shrieked, a noise that made Tenkei jump nearly three feet. Looking at the older girl, Kagome saw that Miroku was, once again, stroking Sango's rear. Without waiting for an explanation, Sanko turned and slapped the offensive monk as hard as she could. "Uh," the thoroughly startled Tenkei asked, trembling visibly, "W-what just happened?"
"Never mind," Kagome assured her, placing a calming arm around her shoulders, "It happens all the time. Why did you say you're in Inuyasha's debt, though?"
"I would probably have died in that burning building," Tenkei explained, gripping her staff with both hands, "but Inuyasha not only rescued me, he tended my wounds and offered to feed and protect me before he was aware of who I was. Lord Inuyasha, before she died, my mother told me this would happen. So, I will stay with you until the debt is paid."
"Forget it," Inuyasha scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I can not, Lord Inuyasha," Tenkei insisted, "I must pay this debt of honor. My mother said my life would depend upon it."
"Well, then," snarled the dog-hanyō, not backing down, "it's paid. Go home!"
"It is not as simple as that, Inuyasha," Miroku interjected, his left cheek beet red with the impression of Sango's handprint, "You can not just cancel the debt and walk away. It will only be paid when Tenkei's heart tells her so."
"What d'you know about it?" Inuyasha yelled.
"More than you do, obviously," the monk replied serenely, "Look, Inuyasha, she is alone and has run afoul of Naraku. Surely there would be no harm in allowing her to stay."
"She's blind, Miroku!" Inuyasha pointed out angrily, "She'll only slow us down. I don't know if you want to be the one to lead her around the next time a demon attacks us, but I don't."
"I promise you, Lord Inuyasha," Tenkei asserted, her face taking on a look of mild desperation, "I will not be a burden upon you. Blind or not, I have other powers besides the one I mentioned before. They have proven very effective until now."
"Fine!" Inuyasha snarled, dropping back into a sitting position with his back to the fire, "But I ain't leadin' you around, ya got that!"
"Don't worry, Tenkei," Shippō offered, leaping to her shoulder, "I'll be your eyes, if you want me to."
"Thank you," the pale-haired girl laughed.
"Let me be the first to welcome you to…" Miroku began slyly moving to her side.
"I have already warned you once, monk," Tenkei interrupted flatly, shoving him away with the butt of her staff, "I will not warn you again." Miroku's confident look immediately changed to one of nervousness.
"She warned him?" asked Kagome, guessing that the irrepressible monk had attempted his usual greeting with the pretty young crane hanyō, "How?"
"She told him," Sango smirked, leveling her gaze at the embarrassed monk, "that if he ever touched her without her leave, bad fortune would haunt the rest of his romantic life."
Unable to help herself, Kagome began to laugh.
"A true friend would not laugh," asserted the monk, with an injured expression.
Kagome only laughed harder.
"Go ahead, Monk. Touch her," Sango urged sourly, "Maybe a little bad luck will make you honest."
"I would never do something so rude and insensitive," Miroku insisted, a virtuous look appearing on his face.
"Keh," grunted Inuyasha, "sure you wouldn't."
Still laughing, Kagome went to repack her things.
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Naraku pulled himself carefully out of a pile of rocks at the bottom of the mountain his mountain top house had once been hidden on. Spitting out a number of stones, he followed them with a string of stinging expletives, all of which were directed at the filthy hanyō female he had sent Hakudoshi after. Immediately after she'd pronounced her curse, as she had promised, things had instantaneously begun to go wrong. First, Kanna's mirror had developed an inexplicable crack, which had lengthened with every word the wench spoke until, at last, when she'd thrown Hakudoshi through the building's door, the mirror had shattered, releasing all the souls that had been trapped within it in a glowing cascade of light and glass. The remains had fallen to the floor, irreparably ruined. Kanna had, of course, shown only mild surprise.
However, when Naraku had turned, he'd been utterly shocked to see a large shard of shining mirror lodged in the very center of the fuyoheki, the stone that concealed the demon aura of the Infant, making him reasonably easy to hide. The concealing stone was now pulsating dangerously in the hands of the startled-looking Infant, who had been laid carefully on the floor until such time as Naraku could find a better place to hide him. Without a second thought, Naraku had seized the stone and thrown it out the window, where it had exploded only a few seconds later.
Early this morning, however, he'd learned that the explosion had loosened a number of large rocks lodged just above the mountaintop house. Just before sunrise, they had given way, tumbling the flimsy house and its occupants to mountain's feet far below. Glancing back he saw Kanna climb out of the wreckage with the Infant in her grasp.
"Let me give you a prediction, hanyō," Naraku growled under his breath, "When I find you, I will make you suffer for this."
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