Yo!
I've gotten a pretty good response to this story so far and I'm super happy about it! Hope you guys enjoy this next chapter :D
Please excuse any spelling/grammar errors :)
"You have it, don't you?!"
That was the first thing he heard. His eyes were open, but he wasn't quite processing what was happening. Some sort of creature had pulled him down his family's disgusting old well, and it was holding him with its several arms. Last time he checked, humans only owned two arms … not six. Inuyasha watched a literal skeleton turn into a half-woman-half-centipede thing.
"You must have it! Oh to be alive once more, once again my flesh returns! Boy, where is it?!" by this point the … woman-thing's body had been complete. A glance around proved that she was some sort of monster, and that he definitely wasn't home anymore. They were surrounded by … stars maybe? There were various colors swirling around them in some form of space, but he felt like there was no gravity at all.
He stiffened when he felt something warm and wet slide up his cheek, his eyes readjusting to find that the thing had licked him. Licked him.
"I can practically taste the jewel! Where is it, boy?!" she demanded again, shaking him roughly.
"Get the hell off me!" he went to punch her in the face, and right before his fist made contact it glowed a bright blue. The centipede woman screamed, and she was flung far out of Inuyasha's sight.
The space around him slowly faded and the moist dirt of the well suddenly appeared under him. He was on his hands and knees, completely out of breath and shaking from shock.
"What the hell?" he whispered, slowly looking up and seeing the bright blue sky.
Now that was a welcome sight.
He grabbed onto the vines that he never remembered seeing grow in the well before and pulled himself up. Three minutes and a few scrapes on his hands later, he was holding himself up on the edge of the well. After flinging his legs over the side, he walked a few steps away and observed his surroundings.
"This is definitely not Tokyo … the air is too damn clean! Where the hell am I anyways … and what the hell was that thing?!" he spun back around and marched to the well, looking inside for any evidence of the creature.
There was none.
He did a three-sixty only to find forest, forest, and more forest. With an annoyed huff he started walking around, noticing a tall tree in the distance.
"Is that … the sacred tree?" he blinked at it for a few moments and decided it was his best bet so far. The closer he moved to it, the more doubts he had about being anywhere near his family's shrine. Everything looked too natural, too untouched. His distinctly remembered this massive forest not being behind his home.
He wasn't too far from the sacred tree, and after skillfully hopping over a few more bushes, he saw it. It was, indeed, the sacred tree he knew from his shrine. There was just one thing that was different.
A girl was pinned to the tree by an arrow. The arrow stuck out of her left shoulder, looking to be possibly the most uncomfortable way to have your body held up. Inuyasha could only imagine the tension of the flesh and muscles trying to support the rest of her weight.
"Oi, what're you doing up there?!" he shouted, but she didn't even stir. "You deaf or something?!"
He climbed up the roots that were wrapped around her body, staring at her intensely until he noticed something unusual.
"Are those … dog ears?" his eyes were drawn to the two appendages on top of her head, his hands automatically reached out to them. He gently took one in each of his hands, twisting them and pulling them in every direction. They wouldn't budge.
"Did you stitch these to your hair or something like those cosplayers do? What the hell are you doing on this tree anyways?!" he shouted at her again, but she didn't even twitch. "Hello?!" he screamed right in her face, but alas got no response. He was about to yell at her again when he noticed something, her nose wasn't inhaling or exhaling.
His eyes widened in realization as he practically slammed his right ear against her chest.
There was nothing.
No heartbeat.
No signs of breathing.
The girl pinned to the tree was … dead.
"You're …" he couldn't even finish his sentence. Immediately he jumped off the roots of the tree and looked at her from a distance.
"How even-" he looked around for someone, anyone, but there was no one to seek help from. Turning back to the girl, he took her appearance in for the first time.
She was petite, dressed in a baggy red robe and through the slits in the arms he could see a white one underneath. Her hair looked like it reflected obsidian, reaching down to her mid-back with two shorter pieces by her cheeks tied in wolf-tails with what appeared to be the same material as her robe. The bangs framed her face gently as they blew in the breeze. She wasn't super pale, but you couldn't consider her tan either.
Inuyasha climbed up the roots again and touched her cheek with the back of his hand.
Her cheek was warm, but she appeared to be lifeless.
Out of pure curiosity, he lifted up her hair to look at the side of her head. Sure enough, no human ears.
"So that means," he let her hair fall back down and glanced up at the dog ears on her head, "those are real?" but humans didn't have dog ears, so it was impossible, right? "That makes no sense-"
"You there, boy!"
He turned around to find an old lady, dressed in red pants and a white shirt with an eyepatch over her right eye, aiming a bow and arrow at him. A few young men were behind her, as well as one horse.
"What are you doing with that half-breed?!" she demanded, pulling the arrow back further.
"Half-breed?" he peaked at her ears out of the corner of his eye.
"Haven't you heard the tales of that creature?! She's destroyed countless villages, including ours, and wreaked havoc everywhere before my late elder brother sealed her to that tree. Get away from there, quickly!"
"She's not breathing, but her flesh is still warm! This girl needs to get to a hospital or something! Throw her in jail if she's done such horrible crimes, sure, but pinning her to a tree with an arrow is a little extreme," he unconsciously laid a hand on her good shoulder, but the old lady didn't seem to take notice.
"Lady Kaede, he … his hair and … those eyes," one of the men behind her spoke up, looking at Inuyasha's features in awe.
"I noticed," she nodded, the boy shared the same hair and eyes as her late brother. "You're dressed in those odd clothes and you say foreign words like 'jail' and 'hospital'; you're not from here, are you?"
"I'm from Tokyo."
"Never heard of the place."
"You need to let her down! She's just a girl, she doesn't deserve such cruel punishment! Actually, she needs help! She's not breathing!"
"Don't speak about matters that don't concern you!" Kaede tightened her grip on the bow and arrow, her grudge against that half-breed would follow her until her grave.
"You're one to talk Kaede," a voice spoke from behind Inuyasha that made him freeze completely.
Kaede's one good eye widened, and the village men behind her gasped.
"How – how did you know it's me? It's been fifty years!" the old Priestess stepped closer, not quite believing what she was seeing.
"Fifty years or five hundred years, I'd recognize your scent anywhere. So, if I remember correctly, this is between Sesshomaru and I. So why don't you just run along now? Back to your-" she paused mid-sentence, sniffing a few times before continuing, "wait, you're not Sesshomaru. If I've been asleep for fifty years then he'd be much older, and you don't even smell like him. You just share his hair color … Oi, silver-boy, who are you?"
Inuyasha slowly turned around, coming face to face with the supposedly dead-girl he was defending moments ago. Once their eyes met, he retracted his hand from her shoulder on instinct and almost fell over. They were the deepest, iciest, blue he'd ever seen. It was a shade of blue he'd never known existed, he was sure humanity didn't even know it existed. Her pupils were thin slits and her gaze looked right into his soul.
"You look like him alright, but you're not Sesshomaru. Although if I'm awake, and Kaede is that old, and those wounds Sesshomaru had … that must mean … Sesshomaru's reincarnation?" her eyes were fixated on Inuyasha's gold ones, but he couldn't even move with that look she was giving him. Just one glance and he was terrified.
"That's impossible!" Kaede gaped at the silver-haired man. That was her honorable brother's reincarnation? That young boy dressed in the ridiculous looking clothes? She slightly suspected it due to the resemblance but she couldn't wrap her head around it.
"Oi, boy. What's your name?" the tree-girl spoke to him.
"I-Inuyasha," he stuttered, not sure why this one look was making him so utterly afraid.
"Prove your Sesshomaru's reincarnation. Pull out this arrow," she motioned to the arrow in her shoulder. "You said it yourself, right? I don't deserve to be forcibly held against this tree. So be a good boy and pull out the arrow."
"Inuyasha, don't! My elder brother died sealing away that monster, she can't be allowed to roam free again! She betrayed us all!" Kaede pleaded.
"I have a name, and I know you know it Kaede! I didn't betray anyone either, it was your brother who betrayed me!" she struggled against the arrow, and although they felt like lead, she was starting to get some feeling back in her limbs.
"No, you betrayed him! You're the one who caused the wounds that led to his death!"
"I did no such thing! He laughed in my face after I told him my feelings, shot me against another tree even though he swore never to aim a bow at me again. He told me the last half-year I spent with him was a joke, that he could never live his life with a, I quote, 'disgusting half-breed' like myself!"
"You're wrong, Kagome! He went to meet with you as planned, but then you turned against him!"
"Kagome?" Inuyasha's voice was barely a whisper, but the fuzzy-black ears on top of her head twitched and her focus shifted from Kaede to him. He said it mostly to himself because he just found out her name, and said it so softly he barely could hear it himself, but now he had her attention and felt he needed to say something. It was painfully obvious Inuyasha had no clue what was going on between the old lady, this dog-girl, and this apparently dead Sesshomaru; but although he was naturally intellectually-challenged and slow to catch on, even he could tell their stories weren't matching up and something else was going on.
"What?!" she snapped at him.
Before Inuyasha could even breathe to prepare his next words, the monster that drug him into this mess burst into the clearing.
"The jewel! You're that boy, where is it?!" she hissed. Her body was much bigger than Inuyasha remembered from that place in the well. She moved at lightning fast speed, the centipede part of her body wrapping around the tree and squeezing Inuyasha against Kagome.
"The demon Mistress Centipede?!" Kaede was taken aback, this was a demon that her brother had killed more than 50 years ago.
"I can smell it on this boy! Give it to me, give me the jewel!" she squeezed tighter, making Inuyasha wince at the pressure.
"Oi … is what she saying true? Do you have the jewel?" Kagome's face was hidden by her bangs, but Inuyasha tried to look at it anyways.
"Everyone keeps going on and on about this fucking jewel, I have no idea what this jewel is!"
"Give it to me!" Mistress Centipede increased the pressure, and Inuyasha could barely breathe from it. He was being crushed against this girl, his body was a little lower than hers and on the outside so he had the brunt of the force.
"Your heart is going into distress. You can feel it, right?" Kagoome looked right at Inuyasha, she could hear his erratic heartbeat long before he felt the effects from the lack of oxygen. "If you want to live, pull out this arrow. If you want to die, it's no skin off my nose."
"What about you? You'll die too!" he countered.
"Something like this isn't going to kill me, but maybe it'll readjust my back. It's seriously stiff."
The centipede demon opened its mouth wide and charged at Inuyasha, but he was able to free one of his arms and hold it up in defense.
"Get the fuck away!" he yelled as he threw out his arm, the same blue light from the well emitted from his hand. The demon was thrown back, but the tail that was wrapped around the tree stopped her from being flung away like before.
"Oh?" Kagome rose an eyebrow. "Now there's no mistake. You," she looked Inuyasha right in the eye, "are definitely Sesshomaru's reincarnation. Which means you can pull out this arrow."
"Are … are you strong?" he wheezed, barely able to see the arrow from the lack of oxygen going to his brain.
"Very," Kagome knowingly smiled.
His chest was on fire, it was agonizing. He just wanted it to be over. Blindly reaching for the arrow, he was surprised when he felt a hand guide his to it.
"It's right here. Summon that same strength you used to push that demon back and pull it out. I'll end her life in less than a minute."
"Inuyasha, you mustn't!" Kaede cried. "We'll find another way to save you, but please don't release Kagome!"
"I don't … I don't quite understand what's going on … but I know one thing," he tightened his grip around the arrow. "I don't want to die by a stupid centipede!" he pulled with all his strength, and the arrow suddenly vanished. The moment it did, Kagome's body pulsed … like it pulsed with life. Inuyasha watched with blurred vision, but he could feel it. The aura around her was increasing rapidly. She pulsed again, and again, before finally tearing the centipede's tail apart.
Inuyasha fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for precious oxygen. After a few deep breaths he could see properly again, and he looked up to Kagome who was standing as proud as ever.
"I won't let you lay one finger on this boy," she glared at Mistress Centipede, whose tail was already regenerating.
"You're just a half-breed, you can't do anything against a full demon like myself," she laughed right in Kagome's face, trying to taunt her.
"Oh? Well, half is more than enough to turn scum like you into shreds!" Kagome jumped, and jumped high. "Iron-Reaver Soul-Stealer!" she shouted, her claws glowing gold as she started spinning. Her body acted as a chainsaw and split Mistress Centipede into various little pieces.
Finishing at the end of the demon's tail, and jumping back over to the humanoid part of her body, Kagome slammed her right hand into the left half of the torso. She pulled out a blood-covered blob, tossing it around in her hand a few times before turning to Kaede, who was staring at her in complete shock and fear.
"Kaede," she said, throwing the object into the air. The old woman understood, shakily aimed her bow and shot, the projectile glowing pink as it intercepted its target. It shattered into dust the shade of the arrow, and the rest of the body decomposed instantly.
"What – what was that?" Inuyasha stood up and walked over to Kagome, noticing the height difference between them instantly. This small girl had that much power?
"The heart. If you destroy a demon's heart, it can't restore itself," she turned around to face him. "Now," she flexed her clawed hands, glaring at the boy in front of her, "give me the jewel or I'll turn you into little pieces looking for it!"
So, I told you we weren't exactly following the story line. I tried to make this as original as possible, but alas we still had some similarities to the main story line. Sorry about that, I'm trying my best though.
Please leave a review! I know it's annoying for me to ask, but I want to hear your feedback. I really, really do. Just a quick "I love it!" or something to let me know you guys are enjoying my writing. Even feel free to leave a suggestion, I could always use those!
If you're actually reading this part down here then yay! I was just going to say that I know that Kaede and the villagers are supposed to speak in that "old tongue" but frankly it's annoying and I forgot about it until I completely finished this chapter oops.
Also, I won't be using any Japanese words in this fic (you English-dub lovers can sigh in relief now lol). I do this for a few reasons:
1) Not everyone has watched enough subtitled anime or knows enough Japanese to figure them out.
2) It's annoying and unfair to the reader, especially if you don't provide the proper translation.
3) They're not even English words, just a bunch of letters on how you'd try to pronounce these Japanese words.
4) Japanese words have different meanings and can be translated differently.
5) Not everyone has the strength at 4am to remember exactly what each word means, from "arigato" (thank you) to "onegai" (please) to "daskite" (attempted English word pronunciation for "help me/save me") to any other word you can think of.
Yeah, so that's basically why I don't use Japanese words lol.
Let me know what you think in a review :D
