Chapter Fourteen: The Father of My Father
Rated - M (for suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, and coarse language)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
The ringing in her head slightly subsided when she stood. It was just her luck to be surrounded by a group of ravenous-looking men. Where was Inuyasha? Maybe if she called loud enough, he could hear and come, but something told her that if he were going to come, he would have already. Her heart sank into her stomach. Whatever was to happen here, there was no way she would come out unscathed.
One of the men stepped towards her, a wicked grin plastered on his face. He stood a foot taller than his companions and lacked any hair. His garments were also of a finer quality, albeit still somewhat ragged. Kagome had an inclination that this man may be the leader of this rabble.
"Can we' ave er? Please, Genji," one of the bandits asked, his head inclined towards the taller man.
He began to take several steps toward her. The leader, Genji, scratched at his stubbled chin and considered for a moment. "No…" The other men all groaned in displeasure. "Not yet, at least," he quipped, and the men all grinned. "But that don't mean we won't have no fun."
"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed. She'd decided it wouldn't hurt to try. At the very least, they may be thrown by her calling out for a savior and letting her be.
The tall leader stopped and barked out a laugh. "I don't think he is coming," he chuckled. He whistled through his teeth, a loud and piercing noise.
Kagome threw her hands over her ears to dull the shrill call. This Genji fellow seemed to be signaling something or someone. His eyes did not leave her face as she watched another bandit come into view, followed closely by Inuyasha. His head was lowered in shame, and Kagome knew that these men had some form of control over him. Just by the way he would not meet her eyes, she knew he was guilt-ridden and powerless. What hold could they possibly have over him?
She saw the katana, Tessaiga, strapped at the leader's waist. He must have taken it. Kagome wondered if the man knew the blade was broken before settling on no. He must not; otherwise, he would not be brandishing it so plainly.
The bandit leader seemed pleased with himself. Inuyasha was led over to him and left by his side. The seventh man who had brought him out gave Genji a look and joined his burly peers.
"Seems I finally found my Jiji's pet," he said. He looked at Inuyasha and reached for the beaded necklace around his neck. "Imagine my surprise when your friend stumbled upon us. I knew his red robes and silver hair were exactly as Jiji described."
Kagome's brows knit together. "Who are you?"
She looked around at each of the grimy men, all in various states of disarray. The men all laughed as if she should know who he was, and her question was an insult. Genji threw an arm around Inuyasha's neck companionably. "I'm your buddy's Master." He pulled Inuyasha in close and smiled at her.
Kagome craned her head to catch Inuyasha's eye, "Inuyasha, this man does not control you!" She said with conviction. What made this drabble any more potent than Naraku when he pretended to be Boss?
"Actually," he began before removing his arm from Inuyasha, "I do." Genji's eyes narrowed, and an unhealthy smirk bloomed on his face. "You see, he has to listen to me because I know the word of subjugation."
Kagome's jaw gaped a little at the admonition. She couldn't believe it.
"Your friend here didn't believe me either. I fixed that."
She gulped down the fear that rose in her chest, threatening to overwhelm her. "What-what do you want?" She asked.
A hand rose and pointed to her chest. Her hands flew to her neck, covering up what could not be seen.
"Give it over and I'll make sure my mates are gentle."
"I think I'll hang onto it." she steeled herself. She'd sworn to protect this world from the evil the Shikon no Tama was capable of, and she would not stop now. Not even when the Jewel was naught but a shard.
Genji sighed, feigning boredom. "Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. It's your choice."
"I'll take the hard way if you don't mind. I'll relinquish the Jewel over my dead body!" She threatened.
"Your choice," he said, unphased. "One of my men chose the hard way, too. He's over there if you care to join him." He jerked his head off to the left. Kagome followed his gesture until she saw what looked like flesh rends from bone, and a gasp escaped her. "Well, what's left of him," he teased.
Kagome's eyes flew to Inuyasha's claws, finally noticing that they were covered in blood, the excess dripping off his fingertips. Her eyes widened, and she truly felt fear. Fear for herself and fear for Inuyasha.
o - o - o - o - o
One hour earlier...
Inuyasha stepped silently through the woods, tracking a hare through the brush. It wasn't much, but it was close at hand, and he did not want to waste time nor effort on a large kill that would need to be skinned and cleaned. Kagome would likely complain if he brought more than necessary, yelling at him for killing an animal needlessly.
The hare sat out in the open, grazing on the clovers near a small copse of wildflowers. Its nose twitched while it scented the air. Prey animals were always on the lookout for predators. The small animal perked up and froze. Inuyasha waited to hear what the creature's sensitive hearing had picked up; its own large ears designed to catch sounds. The smell reached him before any sounds did, and he absently swiped at his nose to eradicate the odor. The pungent smell of unwashed bodies intermingled with sweat and other bodily fluids permeated around him. The hare dashed off, making a zigzag line towards some hidden area once the crunch of foliage underfoot became audible. Inuyasha had no cause to feel fear from the rabble that appeared before him. He showed no surprise upon his features, though the same could not be said for the men that pushed through into the clearing.
Seven men erupted, one after the other, loudly into the area. From the look of them, they had to be a band of miscreants. The men were all in various stages of disarray. Inuyasha had initially assumed the men to be bandits, but if that were true, business was not good at the moment. They barely looked fed, as it were. They were attempting to travel to a hideout because there was no way they could be stalking game or burgling from any passerby with as noisy and grotesquely reeking as they were. Perhaps Inuyasha would have attempted to hide in the past, but he had no reason to now. He had nothing to fear from these humans.
It seemed the men felt the same way. None reacted fearfully towards his presence outside of the surprise at happening upon a strangely dressed man. Collectively they stopped and fell silent, a few of the men looking towards one that stood taller than the rest. "Ey, Boss," one of the bandits said to the taller man.
Inuyasha stiffened for a passing second. The name uttered caused him to pause, and he had to reassure himself that this was not his Boss. He would not be tricked again.
"Wots this fella think he's doing dressed like that? With hair all white?"
Inuyasha growled, and he flexed his claws in front of him threateningly. "Scram, you lot. I don't wanna dirty my claws with your repulsive blood," he spat. It was true on both fronts that he did not want to kill them or waste time getting back to Kagome. He'd left her alone while he hunted, but what if there were more bandits in the area?
The group of bandits broke out into raucous laughter. The sound was grating to Inuyasha's ears.
"Who the fuck does this guy think he is?" another asked, elbowing his buddy next to him.
Inuyasha looked at each of the men. It was difficult to tell them apart, aside from the tall leader, who had a scar that ran over his mouth, causing the side of his lips to pucker out. Humans all looked relatively the same, but these men really took the cake. All were dirty, missing teeth, and had a wild look. Inuyasha smirked when he thought, 'Not as wild as me.' "I'm the guy who's gonna fuck you up if you don't beat it!" he taunted.
The leader spoke, "Whoever he is, he can't count." He brought his arms out to his sides to gesture to his comrades, and the men began chortling again.
Inuyasha allowed a grin to break out on his face. Kagome could wait a little longer while he put these idiots in their place. "You could add ten more and it still wouldn't be enough." This might just be the fun he needed to pull him out of his dark place.
"Oh! What have we got here?" one of the rowdier men called out. "Did'ya hear that Genji? This runt can take us all and then some." He started to take steps towards Inuyasha, the others following closely behind. 'That's right, walk closer,' Inuyasha thought.
The leader, Genji, also had a smug smile. His brown eyes flashed with malice, but he put a hand up, "Wait."
"What?" some of the men complained.
"Come on, Boss! We can take em." one overzealous bandit whined. These men seem to be deprived of something. Wits, food, bath water, entertainment, the works.
Genji's head cocked to the side, analyzing Inuyasha. His dark, greasy hair fell into his face and covered some of his features but also gave him a more sinister look. "You look familiar," Genji said.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Doubtful, but you humans all look the same to me."
"So yer not human, eh? That would explain the…" he trailed off but gestured to Inuyasha.
"Ain't you a smart one. Must be why they made you the leader. That or they voted based on height!" Inuyasha taunted. Genji's eye twitched a bit. Perhaps his stature was a sore point for the man. Though why was beyond Inuyasha. He could care less.
Genji's sight settled on the nenju on Inuyasha's neck. His eyes bulged a little, and a smile bloomed on his face that pulled his scarred face into a malicious expression. "I can't believe it," was all Genji said. The bandits all looked at one another, confused by their boss' words.
Enough time had been wasted, and Inuyasha was getting bored. That and the longer he took, the longer he was away from Kagome. Who knew what trouble she could get into on her own.
Inuyasha took their hesitation as the opportunity to attack first. He jumped forward towards the man who first made a move to attack him. With lightning-quick speed, the punch he delivered to the gut of the first guy sent him flying several feet away. The man grunted at the impact and could not pull himself up immediately. Inuyasha hadn't even put all of his strength into that blow, merely a fraction of it to show these men what he was capable of. He smiled up at the bandits.
The six remaining men looked to their leader, who gave the barest of nods. They rushed Inuyasha all at once, hoping their numbers would overwhelm him.
Inuyasha could easily dodge all of the attacks and counterattack reflexively. None of the ill-equipped bandits could avoid his fists, but it was clear that he was not trying to kill these men. Killing them would be messy, and Kagome did not like messy. She would likely berate him for returning covered in blood, only more if she knew it was human blood. It would probably be better anyway to teach these morons a lesson and let them spread a story not to fuck with him.
They rushed him a second time, attempting to grapple him to the ground, but he simply let them pile on before he stood up, threw them off, and sent them all flying. When one of the bandits assaulted Inuyasha from behind, he merely gripped the man by his grubby armor and flipped him over his head. The man fell to the ground with a thud and a groan. At that moment, another of the bandits ran over, brandishing a large club. With one hand, Inuyasha stopped the club mid-swing and grabbed the man's throat with the other, lifting the bandit off the ground. With a squeeze of his hand, the thick club shattered into a spray of splinters. The bandit's eyes bulged in their sockets when Inuyasha's grip began to squeeze lightly. "See what I can do?" he announced, and his threat hung heavy in the air. The other bandits hesitated, picking themselves off the ground and looking to their leader for further instructions. They didn't have any fight left in them.
Inuyasha held the man aloft in the air, whose own hands grasped desperately at Inuyasha's arm. "Call off your men before I kill you all," Inuyasha snarled. These idiots were annoyingly slow at taking the hint.
"No," Genji, the leader, said. "Kill him for all I care." He had his arms crossed and a curious look on his face.
The bandit dangling in Inuyasha's hand began to kick feebly and gurgled something that sounded like no. Inuyasha's head snapped over to the leader. "Wha?" he asked incredulously. No wonder these men were such idiots if they were led by the ultimate moron who could not even see what he was capable of. Maybe he was crazy. Maybe he just didn't care.
"I said go ahead and kill him." The man had a vicious look to him now.
Inuyasha could feel the man's veins throb under his grip. It would be just as easy as obliterating the wooden club, easier even. He looked over at the leader; his hesitation was markedly evident. He'd killed people plenty of times, but he had never killed someone without being forced to. Not someone who was defenseless compared to him.
Genji chuckled, "Cant' do it can ya?"
"If I wanted," he snarled, gripping just a little harder. The unfortunate man within his grip looked pleadingly towards Inuyasha and gurgled his entreaty.
"Do it," Genji repeated.
Inuyasha stared the man in the eyes, not looking away, and unleashed his prey. The bandit drew in strangled breaths and kicked away.
No one would order Inuyasha around. "I have no master, you fuck," he said darkly. Maybe he should kill this leader, he thought. This one was odd and deserved it if he was willing to sacrifice his lackey.
Genji smirked, "I beg to differ. Do it! Kill him, or I will make you do it."
Inuyasha scoffed. This was becoming rather amusing. How this grubby human thought he could tell him what to do... Only one person had ever ruled him at a time, a man always known as Bosu, who held his leash with subjugation and fear rather than loyalty. That man would pass down a single word to his successor to keep Inuyasha at heel. The word was usually passed down to the man that the current Boss had chosen to take over his gang, but a select few had gained it through more cunning means. Though it had been passed down from father to son, the son being the worst of his keepers during that dark time.
Thankfully, the word had died out long ago with his previous master over fifty years ago. No one could ever hold Inuyasha's leash again. Who did this idiot think he was to order him? Yet, the look on his face was familiar, and Inuyasha had thought it was just the sinister glean in the man's eye, but perhaps it was something more. Just the intensity with which Genji looked at Inuyasha was starting to break down his resolve. There could be no way….
"Tokihanatsu," Genji shouted, his eyes wild. His followers were all in various states of disarray and had begun to pull themselves to their feet. They all turned to their leader in confusion, quite apprehensive of the hanyo standing before them.
'The word…the word…' The beads around his neck felt heavy, pulling him down into a crouch. His head began to fill with a dark voice that reverberated seductively. "Kill. Take. Kill."
He grabbed at his head, covering his ears to drown out the voices, but that worked to no avail. From beyond the haze, he heard, "I knew it!" but he was too far gone to care. Inuyasha tried to fight the voices and resist the red that seeped through his vision. Somewhere from the beyond that, his consciousness had retreated to, he could feel his canines elongating, his claws lengthening.
o - o - o - o - o
Present time….
He could not look Kagome in the eye. Not now. So they'd found her. It couldn't have been difficult after he'd told them exactly where she was. When they dragged her to their encampment and threw her to the ground, he felt several emotions, a key one being rage at seeing her harmed. He hadn't caught the scent of her blood, but when she staggered to her feet, Inuyasha could tell that she'd suffered a trauma of some kind. Maybe it had been ridiculous for him to hold out hope she would be delivered unharmed, but he'd known her stubbornness would cause her to put up a fight. And put up a fight she had judging from the large lump on the side of her captor's head.
He seethed inside, but he had to remain calm. He shook with wrath, but the men around him probably thought he was cowering in fear. Yet, here he was, tethered to this excuse for a man whom he could not defy for fear of being compelled to obey. It was only the fact that he was powerless to do anything without repercussion that he stood stoically.
From the corner of his eye, he could see that Kagome was looking at him with fear. He knew she could see the blood that dripped from his claws, and she was smart enough to piece together why. He could not hide his guilt any more than he could hide the blood. There was nothing that he could do about either. In fact, he knew that he would likely be instructed to kill Kagome as well. The difference between his prior masters and now was that he genuinely had something to lose.
Genji pulled Inuyasha in close again, "Last chance, miko. Pass it over. Your friend here told me all about it." His smile was sickening, and his eyes roved up and down Kagome's body. She stood shakily upon wobbly legs. Just the thought of her being wounded because of him, even if indirectly, filled him with anger.
"Fuck off! Over my dead body!" she screamed.
Why was he not surprised. Well, he had been surprised to hear the language, given how often she yelled at him, but not surprised to hear her alternative. He was oddly pleased to hear her obstinate remark.
A sigh erupted from the bandit leader. "As you wish, miko." He released Inuyasha and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Inu...Kill her...Slowly. I want to savor it." Why did these crazy fuckers always want to enjoy seeing him kill? That had been a resounding similarity between all of his masters.
Kagome did not cry out, nor did she look afraid to die. Instead, she looked fearful for another reason that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Her chin raised high, and she stared them all down. "You coward! Making Inuyasha do your dirty work for you! Afraid of a woman, huh?"
No one said anything; their fear was more directed at Inuyasha than having their pride hurt. He'd been instructed to kill her, and if they got in the way, they could end up like their tattered companion.
He could not make a move further. Inuyasha knew that if he did not kill Kagome of his own volition, Genji would force it on him, and the results would not be pleasant. He took a step forward. Perhaps it would be best to do this on his own. At least he could make it fast and accept any punishment for disobeying. He took another, and laughter erupted from the men, who seemed to find the entire situation entertaining once they felt they were not the intended victim. "Stop," Genji demanded. Inuyasha did stop dead in his tracks, and relief flooded through him.
"There's too much fun to be had here," he said with an evil smile. "Boyos," he called to his men. They all began to converge on Kagome slowly while Inuyasha stood helplessly by.