The Burned Bridge 3 (Post-Yashahime/Inuyasha, OC!MC)
Higurashi Mei woke up once more. Instead of her room, just as she was reminded the day before, she woke up in a dark space that was small and filled with dirt. There was a grate by the ceiling, enough to let some lights in and-
"Ye're awake, right, brat?" A rough voice asked with a grumpy tone. "It's breakfast time."
The girl scoffed, remembering just now what was going on. Mei had been kidnapped while looking into a potential portal to the past. Years and years of hoping she would find a way to reunite with her cousin/sister, after that jerk had sealed the only available portal, and now she found a way- and she got taken by those that had opened this portal.
Maybe she should have been a bit careful while investigating for a Yokai being responsible for the recent kidnappings, but Mei knew this was a chance to get Towa-nee back. And she couldn't ignore it. Being kidnapped was indeed awkward, but her hope for Towa-nee to find her and rescue her as those times in the past had kept her in a good mood while being upset with those that held her captive.
Still, the noise she made was enough to confirm her state of awareness to her guard and just enough for the yokai to slowly lower the tray with her meal, let the food slip on the muddy ground and retreat the tray.
"Good meal."
And he was gone. The first day she spent there, Mei had skipped on her meal, and the second day she had been tempted to eat it but she had been 'rescued' by someone that she knew was going to soon come to her. Not even ten minutes of waiting that Mei heard the familiar footsteps and soon... the grate was removed.
A tiny figure soon descended down to the ground, petite and shorter than her. Yawning, the pink-haired kitsune took a moment to fix her long katana stashed around her back and her pretty yellow kimono.
"Fuh~ those morons are so difficult to move around and... howdy, girly."
"Tama-chan," Mei beamed at the simple-looking girl. "How are you?"
Despite being named as the infamous kitsune herself, Tamamo was actually dubbed as 'Tamamo the Second' since she was a self-proclaimed second coming of the legendary yokai... except she was limited by size and powers much to her chagrin.
"Bored. This thing about 'The heir of Kirinmaru-sama' is truly miffing me, and I was told nothing despite swearing loyalty and all of that stuff," The kitsune remarked, huffing and puffing about this potential 'son' to Kirinmaru.
Mei remembered hearing from Towa and Setsuna that Kirinmaru was a bad person, so it made sense that his child would be the villain but... wasn't the bad guy already beaten? Wouldn't it make sense for him to be behind this?
"How about ya? Still giving you bad stuff for meals?" Tamamo asked and then paused, glancing at the dirtied food by her shoes. "Yeaahh... Well, I got some apples."
Right as she said that, the pinkette handed her two of the red fruits which Mei happily started to eat. "Thank you, Tama-chan."
"None of that. Plus, my boss would be upset if I let someone with your name cry or something."
And that's another thing Mei couldn't get much out of Tamamo, this time because the kitsune was 'jealous' of giving up info on her master. What Mei knew was that Tamamo worshipped the ground the man walked, she admired him and... it was someone that knew of Mei's last name, enough to put a ward of protection over anyone bearing that name minus a few elements.
She didn't know the full scope of the protection, but it was enough for Tamamo, someone that had been 'recruited' by Kirinmaru's son to be an advisor, to actually help her however she could without drawing attention on the matter.
"So, any news of your big sis or something?" The kitsune inquired, perhaps a bit smuggier than usual as this was a topic of 'contempt' between the two.
"N-No, but she is definitely coming."
"Nope, I bet my Master will be the one rescuing ya. In fact, I can already sense he is back."
"...Can you?" Mei inquired, surprised by this honest response but-
"No. But I bet he is," Tamamo confidently assured, admitting to the lie and getting a huff from Mei. "Still, you should clear up the apples so I can remove the discarded bits."
Rolling her eyes, Mei ate faster, knowing that Tamamo expected humans to eat just as fast as yokai but her mouth can enjoy apples so much before she needed a moment to chew the bites enough to swallow those. Soon, however, she had the discarded bits handed to the kitsune and-
"Tama-chan."
The kitsune paused and huffed. "Yes?"
"Do you... really think your master will save me?" She didn't know enough to trust this man, but Tamamo was rather devoted to the individual even though she admitted to be called an 'idiot' many times by the man.
"Duh. He may be forgetful since he left me here for many years, but I bet he will remember ya."
Mei frowned at the pained grin on the yokai's face, but she had no chance to press on the topic as Tamamo jumped out of the cage and closed the gate once more.
Nonetheless, Mei felt extremely miserable. Hopefully she was going to be saved. Hopefully.
-d-d-d-d-
"A-chooo!" Someone is talking bad about me, I can feel it, and I have a strange sense of nostalgia hitting me too.
It's been ten minutes since I passed through from the Present to the Past, and ten minutes since I had been contemplating where to go next. I had interrogated the few Yokai garrisoning the area on the other side, and I learned that someone was trying to bring back the old domain in the Eastern Lands.
You know, the one I had destroyed ages ago and... that I doubted held its capital back where it used to. I had been rather 'determined' in wrecking that place, looting and salting the land to the point that nothing could be created in it.
No, this new 'Eastern Daimyo' was putting his forces closer to the Western Lands... which makes me wonder why Sesshoumaru had done nothing to stop this situation. I could see many not do anything, but Sesshoumaru would have reacted accordingly to any threat to his peace.
Right as I was making my way to one of the nearest outposts I knew the morons had set their forward base at, I felt like someone was trailing me. Whoever it was, they had a familiar energy and they were not doing a fine job conceiling their energy.
Still, I was a bit surprised I got someone looking for me when I had pre-emptively suppressed my own energy to avoid this sort of situations. So, I kept going and waited for the patience of the chaser to slip out and... make the mistake of striking me.
I felt the rush from behind, ducking just in time for a wooden stick to miss the back of my head and for my pursuer, a certain girl with long white hair and a little bit of red by her frontal bangs. I grinned in amusement as I realized whot it was and how she had just rushed in without any back-up.
"Towa, long time no see and..." I paused, taking a moment to see her long hair, her curvier self and... "You sure let yourself go."
This comment pissed her a fair bit as she yelled and resumed her attacks.
Admittedly, she wasn't fat, but she definitely had dropped training with how sloppy she was with her strikes. I dodged those, her 'mighty stick' failing to get anywhere close to me and I had the tool that was most powerful against any sort of idiots trying to battle me without going all out.
What Towa felt was two tiny needles stabbing on her side through her kimono and then electricity hitting her through the strings connecting the needles to the device I was holding. The good old taser, never disappointing with the right kind of voltage.
It wasn't enough to either kill or put her out of commission, but I proceeded to stomp her wrist, forcing her to drop her 'weapon' and then force my hands around her throat. Squirming a bit, the girl's eyes were wide open as I choked her for a bit, her effort to muster her energy failing as I put more pressure on my hold and... I let her go.
"Too easy," I hummed as I saw her cough loudly, rubbing her palms over her bruised neck. "It would have been too easy to just claim your life- this is just pathetic, where did all that fire go? Lost it to pleasuring your doll or what?"
Towa's murderous glare hardly got me 'scared', and she realized this as she focused on getting up and keeping a fighty stance towards me.
"W-Why?" Towa asked, gritting her teeth. "Why are you back?"
"Business. You can say your other dad, you know your human one asked me to find out what happened to your sister- oops, I mean your cousin," I mirthfully remarked, smiling widely at her growing horror. "You know, the one that got kidnapped by some yokai that found a way to get in the present and lured her in with the hopes of finding out where her 'Towa-nee' had gone to."
I could see guilt rising in her face, which made me even more amused. Not only was she so weak, but she clearly had slipped out of her 'efforts to keep vigilant' that she didn't notice someone was acting up to restore the old domain controlled by Kirinmaru.
"How do I know you are lying?"
"Dunno, how about you ask your... uncle? Cousin? What is the fitting title for the bond you had for Old Man Souta?" I asked back, pressing on the very thing that clearly was having an effect on the woman. "Now, you don't need to believe me. I have nothing to worry about the past as the present it about to be mine. I just need this little mess dealt with and have Mei brought back to her real family."
"Stop it! I get it, I-"
"No, you don't," I interrupted, my smile a bit forced now. "You really don't. Just get back to your little village, and enjoy dying a slow and 'happy' death. I can spare you just this much time before I actually focus on stuff that are worthy of my patience and time."
My harsh tone had the effect of having Towa flinch, but I cared not as I got going since I had no time to waste. But while I thought she would take the hint and let me go, I was annoyed when I saw Towa following me, fixing her kimono and reaching for a branch along the path.
Maybe she thought I was lying, or maybe she thought she had a chance for another surprise attack. But what she got was a perfect view to a war camp. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw it from beside me.
"T-That's- how did they avoid detection?"
"Can't tell since I arrived minutes ago. What I can say it's not the only one."
Towa frowned at this. "What do you mean?"
"Didn't ya hear? Kirinmaru has a son, allegedly."
The woman paused, then her eyes widened.
"T-That's not possible. Kirinmaru had a daughter, and no sons."
"Yep, which means that some of his old servants wormed their way out of my little visit, found a Qilin Daiyokai or similar and is using the brat as a way to amass power under that guise," I hummed mirthfully. "And, since little Mei got caught-"
"They want you back."
I nodded at the woman's guess, and turned to look at the camp. "So, I will be starting a bit of a carnage. I suggest you go back home, be a nice housewife and-"
"No."
I sighed tiredly.
"Look, Towa. I get it, you are upset I called you fat and you got beaten by me with ease but-"
"I am not letting you slaughter people. If what you said is true, then most of those yokai are not there willingly," Towa harshly interrupted, then frowned. "Lying about my weight will not get you anywhere with me."
...
"Oh, so you still have some fight in ya. And here I thought you spent in a bed with-"
"Shut up. And focus on the battle at hand."
I am really glad I am going to leave you here once we are done with this little camp experience.
Despite her best efforts to not appear bloodthirsty, Towa slowly seemed to pick up the pace as the 'unwilling' Yokai sure preferred to fight rather than fleeing from us. Towa was restrained at first, but as a blade ended up in her hold, she suddenly started to stab and kill left and right.
I may be a bloodthirsty killer in a battlefield, but the daughter of Sesshoumaru was hardly any better. The only true difference was a matter of honesty as, despite trying to appear 'above' me, I saw that very ferocious fighting spirit Towa had before deciding to remain in the past resurfacing once more.
And as the battle ended with just a suriving foe for me to interrogate, I briefly glanced at Towa as she allowed the sword she had claimed to butcher her way through the lines of yokai to fall to the ground. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth wide open, and her soul wide open.
Towa had her epiphany, her realization: she had definitely kept her touch, deeply buried within her mind, and waiting and aching to return.
I left her at it, focusing on beating some info out of the little bug that survived, but, as I worked on him, I also couldn't help but remember one thing.
Higurashi Towa sure looked cool when she was fighting with a serious and ruthless disposition.
AN
Next time we go with Towa's POV!