A/N: Hey everyone, The Azure Guardian here. And welcome to the third Chapter of my novelization of InuYasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask. This Chapter covers what I consider to be the first half of the Akebi Village section of the video game. Originally I planned for the Chapter to cover the entire section, but it would have been more than double the length and I figured the place I ended the Chapter was a good stopping point while also acting as a decent tease of what's to come.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha, it is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and without her, we never would have gotten The Secret of the Cursed Mask for PS2!
After leaving Kaede's Village, Michiru followed Kagome, Inuyasha and Shippo north and east of the village as they made their way towards Akebi Village, where they could hopefully find some answers on how to get the human boy back home. As they made their way through the forest between the villages, as Shippo and Kagome had warned before, some demons tried to get the jump on them. Due to lacking any kind of fighting abilities, Michiru and Shippo were forced to take cover out of sight while Inuyasha fought the demons with Kagome providing covering fire with her bow and arrows. Thankfully there weren't too many demons, nor were they that big or strong compared to Inuyasha and Kagome, so they were dealt with rather quickly. Once the danger had passed, the group of four continued their way through the forest until they finally reached the entrance to Akebi Village.
"So, this is Akebi Village?" Michiru asked for the sake of clarification, to which Kagome confirmed with a nod.
"Let's hurry up and find those villagers of yours," Inuyasha directed at the human boy, the impatience quite evident in his voice, before making his way into the village proper.
"Is he always like that?" Michiru questioned.
"Always," Shippo answered as he clung to Kagome's shoulder.
The schoolgirl let out a nervous laugh in response, "Come on, let's not keep him waiting."
The group then made their way into the village, Kagome chatting with the local villagers about recent goings-on while Michiru tried his best to look for the ones that had chased after him before, though all they'd learned about was how the village's primary source of income, its charcoal, was quite famous. As they approached what would probably be the village centre, they were approached by one of the villagers instead.
"Hey, travellers!" An older man called out to them with a cautionary tone, prompting the group to stop for a moment. "Have you heard about the old temple near here? It seems there's a bunch of demons in there."
"In the old temple…" Kagome repeated as though to commit the information to memory.
Michiru's body shivered a little from fear at the thought of an abandoned temple infested with demons, "That's a little scary."
"Demons," Inuyasha scoffed, his arms crossed over his chest dismissively. "Yeah, right. Whatever. There's nothing to be scared of."
"I sure hope so," Shippo's voice trembled a bit, feeling just as afraid as Michiru at the thought of a bunch of strong demons in one location.
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to frighten any of you, just thought I'd give you a bit of a warning in case you ever considered heading that way," the villager apologized with a light bow before walking off.
The group continued their way through the village, heading to the western side where they learned demon activity in the area had been increasing as of late, making it riskier for merchants to make the journey to buy the village's charcoal. They also learned that a child had been kidnapped from the village by a demon. Kagome insisted on finding out about the demon terrorizing the village and decided to ask another villager about it.
"Um, excuse me," the schoolgirl called out to a nearby older male villager.
"Hm?" the male turned to face Kagome and made note of her outfit. "Oh, you guys can't get out of the village either?"
Needless to say, she was confused by the question, considering the group had been able to enter the village with little issue, "Huh? Why?"
"My apologies, it's just that your clothes are different, so I figured you weren't from around here."
"You're right, but why can't people get out of the village?" Michiru asked, interjecting himself into the conversation.
"Because of the spider," the man answered. "Lately, there's been a big spider demon wandering around the place. No one's been able to leave the village because everyone's too scared."
"Spider?!" Michiru repeated, a fearful shiver running up his spine. "I hate spiders."
"I don't really like them either," Kagome sympathized, though not to the same extent as Michiru due to having faced spider demons before.
"I don't think that's the problem," Shippo remarked, noticing just how badly the boy was trembling, figuring then that their new friend had an outright fear of spiders and not just a discomfort of them.
However, Shippo wasn't the only one to notice Michiru's fearful reaction, as the villager continued to describe the demon, "And it's not just any spider. It's an enormous spider with a white web that captures people."
"Captures with a white web?" The schoolboy repeated, his body shivering again, and he raised his hands to hold his arms as though to keep himself from getting cold. "Scary."
"On top of that," the villager kept going, as though taking some kind of pleasure in Michiru's torment. "He has black hair on his legs!"
Michiru let out a very audible sound of discomfort as he closed his eyes tightly, feeling like he might collapse, "Please stop!"
"I think he's exaggerating," Shippo said to try and comfort the human boy.
"He has more than ten eyes!" The villager continued, despite Michiru's request for him to stop.
"He's definitely exaggerating," Shippo stated, being aware enough to know that while spiders may have these physical features, spider demons did not.
But it seemed even Inuyasha was getting fed up with the villager's overinflated descriptions of the demon, "Hey, talk straight old man."
The human man looked at the group, noticing the irritated look on Inuyasha's and Shippo's faces, the feared look on Michiru's face, and the look of worry Kagome gave the boy, and gave a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry. I get a kick out of people getting scared when I tell the story. I got carried away." The man looked at the group apologetically while Kagome walked to Michiru's side and rested a hand on the boy's shoulder to try and help him calm down. "Anyway, until someone takes care of him, everybody's too scared to leave the village."
After another apology, the older man walked away and Kagome and Shippo sighed in relief that they didn't have to deal with him anymore.
"Hey, are you going to be okay?" Kagome asked Michiru, her hand still on his shoulder.
The human boy took a couple deep breaths to steady himself before slowly opening his eyes, "Y-yeah… I think I'm good…"
"You sure? You don't look too good," Shippo pointed out, concerned for his new human friend.
Michiru laughed nervously, "Sorry, I just get really uncomfortable when it comes to spiders."
Inuyasha scoffed, "If you're done being scared, we should keep moving. We still haven't found those villagers of yours."
Kagome looked at the white-haired demon with an irritated scowl, "Don't be so rude, Inuyasha! We should at least wait until he's feeling well enough so he doesn't trip over himself or something."
"Kagome, it's all right," Michiru said while raising a hand to try and keep the pair from fighting. "Inuyasha has a point. You guys are going out of your way to help me, I don't want to be a burden."
Kagome gave him a confused look, wondering what Michiru meant by him burdening the group, but chose not to press it in case Inuyasha got more annoyed by it. And if Michiru was certain he was feeling fine enough to travel, then he probably wouldn't want her worrying over it. The group of four then made their way back to the village centre before heading to the north side of Akebi Village, continuing their search for the villagers Michiru had crossed paths with while Kagome asked about the demon that was causing trouble.
"Demon?" One of the villagers repeated. "Oh, the giant spider in the old temple beyond the forest." Michiru shivered again at the mention of "giant spider". "Ever since I was a child I heard that it lived in the old temple. But recently he came to the village and has been attacking the villagers. So, because of that, nobody's been able to get out to the forest. It's been terrible."
"Recently?" The schoolboy repeated. "Does that mean he didn't chase people before?"
The villager's eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion, "Why would you ask that? Are you going to the old temple?"
"What if we are?" Inuyasha shot back with a stern glare.
"Uh, nothing. I'm sorry," the villager apologized fearfully before returning his attention to Kagome and Michiru to answer the boy's question properly. "Until now he was satisfied with eating stray farm animals and creatures in the wild. He never used to come to the village."
"I see… Thank you for answering our questions," Kagome said to the villager before the group walked away, the girl's brow furrowed slightly in thought.
"What's up, Kagome?" Shippo asked, noticing the look on her face.
The schoolgirl glanced at the young fox, "I was just thinking about what that villager said. About the demon."
"How it only recently started to attack the village?" Michiru questioned, to which Kagome nodded in affirmation. "Well… For animals, they usually develop a change of behaviour based on a change to their environment, right? Maybe it's the same thing here?"
Inuyasha just scoffed, "It's a demon, there's no sense trying to figure out why it started acting different. My guess is it got bored eating whatever wandered into its territory and came to the village to give humans a try, since there's a ready supply for it to snatch up whenever it wants. And keeping the villagers too scared to leave means it won't run out of food until it's picked the place clean."
The two humans of the group looked at each other briefly with concern regarding the situation but decided to drop the subject. Kagome had been in the Feudal Era long enough to know that Inuyasha was right, at least a good portion of the time, whereas Michiru didn't know a thing and was just making a blind guess with no real merit so didn't want to try asserting himself in something he was unfamiliar with. So the group continued asking around, still looking for the villagers Michiru had crossed paths with.
"Sorry, I don't know much about the demon other than that it only started coming near the village recently," an older male villager answered when asked by Kagome, but then he turned slightly to look down a nearby path. "But if you're thinking of heading to the pond just ahead, you should talk to Kakuju. I'm sure she could tell you something helpful."
Hearing that, the group of four looked at each other. They may not have found Michiru's villagers, but if this Kakuju person could help, then they'd take it. Thanking the villager with a bow, the group made their way towards the village's pond. Coming into view was an elderly individual wearing what appeared to be a salmon-coloured kimono with a green knee-length vestment and a white obi standing near the water's edge.
"What rare use of Shikigami power," the individual spoke with an elderly feminine voice.
That caught the group of four by surprise, their eyes widening slightly.
"What?" Michiru questioned in confusion.
The individual turned around, revealing themself to be an old woman, her eyes hidden behind her grey hair, a large necklace of purple beads hanging over her chest as she held a wooden cane like a walking stick. It seemed as though she was looking directly at Michiru.
"When you were in danger, do you remember what you cried out?" She asked the boy.
Judging by the old woman's words, Michiru could only figure she was referring to when he first arrived in the Feudal Era. When he was attacked by the demon before he met Inuyasha, to be specific. However, he couldn't recall exactly what happened during that moment other than the sudden red light.
"Um?" Was all that escaped the boy's mouth as he tilted his head trying to think.
"How would you know?" Inuyasha questioned with suspicion, his arms crossed over his chest.
In response, the old woman let out an amused yet knowing laugh, "I wonder!"
"Strange Granny," the white-haired demon grumbled.
"What is this about?" Kagome asked, feeling completely lost.
After a quick glance at the schoolgirl, Inuyasha turned his attention to Michiru as he lowered his arms, "It doesn't seem likely, but apparently Michiru here has a mysterious power."
The human boy quickly looked over at Inuyasha in surprise, but then recalled how the demon mentioned him using a "light" before returning his attention to the old woman, "Well, Grandma, exactly what is this power?"
"Please, call me Kakuju," the woman said, revealing herself to be the Kakuju the group was told about. "As for your power, it's what we call Shikigami, which is a very special power that few can wield. It's a spiritual power that exists in all creatures in the universe."
"It sounds pretty amazing," Kagome said, impressed by how it was described. Though it wasn't the first time she and the others had encountered Shikigami or those who made use of it as she recalled their encounter with the dark priestess Tsubaki and the pair of priestesses Botan and Momiji not too long ago.
"Well, you have only just awakened your powers," Kakuju told Michiru. "You don't even know how to use them to their fullest potential yet."
The human boy turned his gaze to the ground and shuffled in place a bit, "I'm pretty helpless. Everybody's been protecting me."
"You can't help it," Kagome sympathized. "There's nothing like this in our world."
"Your world?" Kakuju questioned, confused by what the girl meant.
Looking back up at the old woman, Michiru nodded his head, "Yeah. I'm from a different world, and I was brought here unexpectedly."
Kakuju held her chin in her hand in a mixture of thought and confusion, perplexed by the boy's revealed situation, "Oh. You're from a different world. That is unusual."
"You couldn't tell from the strange clothing?" Shippo asked, figuring it should have been obvious to assume something was up due to both Michiru and Kagome having such a different style of clothes than everyone else.
"I'm sorry. My eyes don't work so well anymore," the old woman explained, lowering her hand so both were resting on her cane. "I can't even tell what you're wearing or what you look like."
Realizing he must have sounded quite insensitive, Shippo lowered his head in apology, "I didn't realize that. I'm sorry for what I said."
Kakuju, however, let out a light-hearted laugh, as though she had similar exchanges before. "Don't worry about it," she assured the young fox.
"So, do you know anything?" Inuyasha questioned, thinking the woman might have some idea regarding Michiru's circumstance.
But Kakuju sighed and slowly shook her head, "Sorry, but I don't know anything that could help you."
"I see," Michiru said dejectedly.
"Sorry about that," the woman apologized to the boy.
"That's okay," Michiru sighed and everyone turned to leave. "Well…"
"Wait a moment," Kakuju spoke up, stopping the group and earning their attention.
"Huh?"
"I don't know what brought you into the world, but I can teach you how to use the Shikigami power that lies within you," the old woman offered. "Would you like to learn?"
"Hey, that doesn't sound too bad," Inuyasha remarked as he looked at Michiru, thinking the human boy could actually help in fights if he gained this strange power. "You should learn how to use it."
Michiru nodded to the demon in agreement before turning his attention to Kakuju, "Okay. Please teach me, Grandma Kakuju."
"Very well, then," the old woman smiled gently as she held out her left hand. "Just stand in front of me, hold my hand, close your eyes, and be very still."
Without a word, Michiru did as instructed, walking up to Kakuju and taking hold of her hand as he closed his eyes and did his best to not move. As Inuyasha and the others watched in silence, a pattern resembling a red five-pointed star inside a circle appeared under the boy's feet, slowly spinning in a counter-clockwise rotation as it expanded until Kakuju also stood in its radius. A faint red light started to surround Michiru's body, steadily growing brighter and brighter until, with a sudden flash that forced Inuyasha and the others to cover their eyes… the light was gone, prompting the on-lookers to lower their arms.
"Wow! Your body lit up!" Shippo exclaimed in excitement and awe. "Is that what you call Shikigami?"
"No, no. We just awakened the Shikigami," Kakuju explained as Michiru let go of her hand. "Now you will learn to use the Shikigami." The old woman then stepped aside and stood next to a boulder that was roughly half her size. "Take a look at this rock. It's composed of Serpentine, which reacts strongly to the power of Shikigami. If you can properly channel your Shikigami, the rock will react and break. Go ahead and give it a try."
"Okay," Michiru accepted the task with a nod.
The boy then walked up to the boulder and knelt down next to it, resting a hand on its surface as Kakuju took a couple steps back. Michiru tried focusing on the power he had gained, and the boulder began to glow red as though in reaction, just as Kakuju had said… before violently exploding and disintegrating, leaving not even a pebble behind. Though at first surprised at what he did, Michiru stood back up and turned together his friends and teacher with a look of amazement on his face.
"I did it!" The boy shouted excitedly.
"That's great!" Kagome cheered, just as surprised and amazed at what her new friend did.
Inuyasha, however, looked unimpressed as he raised his arms and rested his hands behind his head, "Whatever, I can do that."
"No need to get competitive," Shippo shot at the older demon.
Even Kagome scowled at Inuyasha for his attempt to downplay Michiru's achievement at learning to use his newfound power, "That's right. This isn't the place to be waving your sword around."
"Shut up!" The white-haired demon shot back in an attempt to feel superior.
"So, do you think you've learned how to use your Shikigami power?" Kakuju asked the human boy.
"Pretty much, I think," Michiru answered.
"Now, the test will be in putting it to actual use."
The boy nodded his head, a look of determination on his face as he smiled gratefully, "Right. Thank you, Grandma Kakuju."
After saying their farewells, the group of four made their way back towards the village centre. But Kakuju turned her attention to where the boulder once stood, a look of intrigue on the old woman's face. After all, she had simply instructed Michiru to break the rock, not obliterate it. This only left her to wonder how powerful the boy truly was… and how much more powerful he would become.