A/N: OMG! I finally got over my writer's block, and once again this story is flowing freely! I am soooo sorry to all of you who have been patiently waiting for this chapter. I know 3 months is a hell of a long time to wait, 4 if you count writing for Namo! Well, I hope you like it. It was not easy but I finally got it done, all thanks to some bimbo on the thruway. You heard me, all of you have some stupid driver to thank for this! I was on the I-90 when some idiot comes up from behind me weaving in and out of traffic. She pulls in front of me, and suddenly slows down. I was like, "You jackass!" and suddenly images, sounds, even smell, burst free from my aggravated little head followed by detailed narration. And that is how this chapter finally came to be! Enjoy!
Major spoilers for those of you who are not current with the manga. This story takes place after the events of chapter 313 in the manga. Please Review!
This is an R rated fic. It contains strong language, violence, and adult situations.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Inu Yasha characters, I do own all other characters.
Recap:
Thinking back, she could not recall the mention of a second human male in the group. The hanyou, yes, he was what brought her here. The taijiya and houshi had fairly dangerous reputations themselves against youkai. Eyes resting on the young miko who was now cooking the late afternoon meal, a smile curved her lips, flashing long, sharp fangs. The miko was said to be the half-breed's mate. Sniffing the air, she smelled no claim on the girl. But it didn't matter to her if she were claimed or not. She would follow and watch the group of demon exterminators. And when the time was right she would make herself known. Until then, she leaned back against the trunk of the tree, her long tail curling around the branch under her. Closing her yellow brown eyes, she fell into a light sleep, dreaming of the revenge she so desperately needed, and wondering who the strange clothed human male was.
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Chapter 4: Embracing the StormThe earth sucked at the soles of their feet as they trudged across the muddied field, as if trying to pull them down to prevent their passing. As the rain pelted the travelers and the already drenched land, the angry skies grew angrier, darkening from gray to near pitch black. Thunder roared, drowning out all other sounds as it rumbled overheard, occasionally clapping with such force it reverberated through the air, causing the group to huddle closer together for protection.
Kagome clung to her hanyou as she rode upon his back, feeling the safety of his warmth as his clawed hands held tightly to the backs of her knees. His red haori clung to the young miko's form, but she still shivered beneath its dry interior as the wind whipped about her, as if attempting to tear free the garment that protected her from its fury.
"Daijoubu?" Inu Yasha yelled to her in the wind, but even his deep bellowing tone was carried away by the winds strength, his words never reaching the future girl's covered ears. Turning to peer at her over his shoulder, his golden eyes narrowed against the stinging rain, the inu hanyou asked once again, "Kagome, you okay?"
Face buried in Inu Yasha's thick, drenched hair, Kagome looked up as she felt his head move and thought she heard his voice above the howling gale. Straining her human ears, she caught the half demon's last words and nodded silently as she once again buried her face into the back of his shoulder, her hands tightening their grip upon the inu youkai's shoulders.
"How much further to Jinenji's?" Miroku asked as he appeared beside the dog demon, his shakujou held before him as if warding off the offensive storm that beat down upon the group.
"I can't tell in this shitty weather. My senses are off, but I know we're going the right way." Again, as he had done several times since the ooburi had increased in strength, Inu Yasha sniffed at the moist air. He coughed spasmodically as the wind brought rain into his nostrils. Hunching over, the hanyou spat, clearing his throat of the offensive stuff. "Gah! Tastes like puke! What the hell kind of storm is this?!" he demanded looking up at the furious clouds overhead.
"Demon," Miroku replied, his words carried away as a gust of wind nearly knocked him off his feet.
Peering through the dreary darkness, Inu Yasha suddenly picked up his pace. "There's a light up ahead!" Even with his inhumanly speed, the hanyou felt hindered by the elements as he tried to lead his friends to possible shelter.
Lightening cracked and split, shedding a brief blinding light upon the land as it struck the earth. Sango jumped quickly to the side as she felt the electricity strike near her. The ground beneath her sandaled feet charged with energy briefly before wavering and dissipating.
"Itai!" Inu Yasha dropped the miko unceremoniously as his bare feet felt the jolt of electricity surging through the water soaked ground. Smoke hissed from his clawed toes and he took to the air in a giant leap to free himself of the burning sensation. Landing only a few feet from the now mud caked Kagome, his golden eyes widened.
"Inu Yasha!" Kagome screamed as she pulled her self up, with Houjo's help, from the sinking mud. Her eyes flashed angry fire as she stood facing the half dog demon.
"Gomen, Kagome, I-I …." He gulped as her aura flared deadly about her, the miko powers the future girl processed seeming more dangerous than the unnatural storm.
"We need to find shelter, the storm is getting much worse." Miroku's wise words cut into her ire and Kagome nodded in agreement as she began trudging through the thickening mud.
Several minutes later, they finally came upon the source of the light, all sighing with relief as a large hut came into view. Its high roof and neatly fenced in garden immediately indicated they had at last found Jinenji's home.
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Large, luminous eyes blinked back the harsh rain as she watched with great difficulty the travelers ahead of her. Leaping into a nearby tree, the youkai hissed before shaking herself vigorously, freeing her long hair of the excess water. Her fur bristled with frustration as her quarry became less visible.
"Stupid storm!" She seethed. "I will lose sight of them at this rate!"
Grasping her tail by its base, one clawed hand ran the length of the furry appendage, gently squeezing out the rainwater as it glided easily over the damp orange and black fur. Dry once again, she curled her tail about her, as if the thin body part could protect the youkai from further assault from the elements.
The tree swayed precariously in the wind, and she suddenly dug her claws deep into the bark, securing her hold on the feeble shelter. No, it was not the strongest tree at the edge of the field, but it had been the closest, so without delay, the youkai had jumped high into the thin branches, grasping tightly as the limb shivered and swayed beneath her weight. At least for the moment she would be out of the rain, but she would have to move again quickly, for she knew the branch would not hold her for long.
No sooner had these thoughts left her than she felt more than heard the cracking of the wood. With the speed born of her species, the demon jumped from the tree, landing in the slick, thick mud below. Turning her yellow eyes, she watched as the limb snapped, crashing down to the earth below it. Her eyes widened as she observed the spectacle. Before the broken tree branch could hit the ground, the wind kicked up, jerking the limb into the air as it carried it off toward the shadowy forest beyond.
"I have to get out of this shit!" She thought as thunder clapped overhead, followed by the blinding flash of lightening. Surprisingly, she heard the audible cry of the hanyou in the distance and wondered if he had been struck by the deadly bolt that had lit up the darkness. Straining her ears, she sighed with relief when she heard the distinct angry yell of the miko. No, he had not been struck, for if he had, she knew the miko and her companions would have cried out in worry, not fury. She would have chuckled if not for the dark image hurling toward her. Without thought, the youkai ducked and rolled swiftly out of harms way as a leafy branch swept over where she had been crouched in the muddy earth.
"Kuso! That had been close!' The damaged sustained would have been minimal, but it still would have hurt like hell to be smacked in the head with such a large projectile. Fearing now for her safely, the youkai searched frantically for a safe shelter, no longer worried about losing track of the group she had been following so closely for the past two days.
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Inu Yasha sneezed again as he took a sip of the hot medicinal tea Jinenji had given him. "Itai!" he yelped as the steaming brew sloshed over the sides of the drinking bowl, burning his fingers as it landed on his hands.
"Mou, Inu Yasha, you should wait until AFTER you sneeze before trying to drink it." Kagome scolded the hanyou lightly as she shook her head disapprovingly at him.
"Serves him right for making us walk all day in that storm!" Shippou eyed the dog demon contemptuously as he snuggled deeper into the warmth of the miko's lap. He was still irritated that Inu Yasha had insisted they continue their journey after their late afternoon meal, even though the storm had begun to increase.
"Usari!" Inu Yasha growled before downing the last of the tea. His tongue burned, but the hanyou bit back the whimper constricting his throat. He refused to show weakness in front of the gloating kitsune runt.
Houjo sat quietly by the fire, watching warily the group as they interacted, his dark eyes flitting back and forth before finally settling on the other hanyou, on Jinenji. The other youkai Kagome-san knew looked more human or animal than this large, strange creature called Jinenji.
Inu Yasha, though vulgar and seemingly violent, had given the future boy no reason to fear him. In fact, he rather disdained the inu youkai, his very nature around Kagome was rude and disrespectful and that bothered Houjo. But the other two, the neko and kitsune, they were rather cute and he felt no threat from them. Houjo had to admit, he liked petting the tiny cat demon, her red eyes blinking at him with content when he has stroked her yellow fur. The fox child, perhaps it was the deep affection Kagome and he had for each other that made him feel at ease with the little guy. Whatever the reasons, this Jinenji did not give Houjo the same fearlessness.
Jinenji lacked any human appearance completely. His large enormous frame was covered by orange tinted skin marred by numerous scars. Eyes wide and round yet seemingly filled with sorrow, bulged from an elongated face. His arms were overly long with meaty hands. This hanyou who Kagome had smiled brightly up at and hugged with such exuberance literally scared the hell out of Houjo. But more than this frightened Jinenji, if a hanyou looked like this, then what other monsters were lurking out there in the Sengoku Jidai, monsters who were larger and more frightening than this supposed gentle hanyou? These were the thoughts that were haunting the future boy's mind.
"Daijoubu, Houjo-kun?" Kagome asked again as she squatted down in front of her school friend, concern in her hazel orbs.
"Huh?" Houjo looked up startled, he had not heard Kagome call to him, and her sudden arrival before him startled him.
"Are you okay? You don't look so well." Kagome reached out a hand, the back of which lay gently across the boy's forehead. "No fever." A puzzling look crossed her face as she chewed on her bottom lip in contemplation.
"I-I'm fine, Higurashi-san." He stammered as he pulled away from the miko's touch, not wanting his friend to know that he was afraid, not ill.
Inu Yasha glared at the two from his perch by the fire. "Keh! Nothing's wrong with him, Kagome." Inu Yasha snorted, as he stood up and tossed his blanket aside, letting it fall onto the sleeping Kiarara. The neko mewed loudly as she awoke and struggled to free herself from the blanket's confines.
"Inu Yasha, that was not nice!" Sango snatched the blanket off the fire cat as she shot the hanyou a look that told him he was being rude.
"While we sit here, that bitch is Abi is helping Naraku get closer to the last Shikon no kakera! Damned this weather!" He slammed his fist into the wall in his frustration, denting the wood where his fist landed. "This is not natural. Now we have to fight this too before we can reach the last shard!"
"This storm, it reeks of evil." All eyes turned to the old woman hunched over the stew pot over the fire. Her haggard face glowed reddish orange in the firelight, accentuating the many wrinkles that creased her aged face. "When Jinenji's father was around, he once spoke of one who could create ooburi such as this. Great storms so terrible that they could uproot the largest trees, cause great tidal waves on the oceans, and even split the earth with the force of lightening."
Miroku looked thoughtful a moment before speaking, "Makaze."
"Oro?" Inu Yasha asked, turning to face the monk who now stood in the middle of the room.
"I once heard a tale of a youkai, more devil than demon, named Makaze. So evil was this demon, that long ago, centuries in fact, he was sealed by a great priest who refused to tell anyone where he had sealed Makaze. After he had died, a scroll was found, telling of Makaze being sealed away in a clay pot and buried far beneath the sea, where he could never be found."
"Che, seems like Naraku found him." The inu hanyou growled as he glanced once more out the window, toward the black skies, the storm clouds had once again thickened releasing a torrent of rain. "And I can't track him down in this shit. The winds too strong."
"Seems that Naraku found a way to buy some time to get to the last Shikon no Kakera." Kagome sighed, it seemed that the closer they came to Naraku, the further they got. Every step lately was hindered by something. First the Shichinin-tai, then that baka uindo youkai, Kagura and Kanna, the baby Hakudoushi and Abi, and now this new demon was stalling them, this Makaze.
"We'll have to stop Makaze before we can find Naraku." Sango stated, picking up Hiraikotsu, a determined glint in her chocolate brown eyes.
Kagome nodded firmly, she too looking determined as she unconsciously felt for the bow slung over her shoulder. "Hai! We will find him first, then get Naraku."
"Iie!" Inu Yasha spun around, his white hair flying wildly with his actions. Amber gold eyes bore into the young miko, his face set sternly. "You will stay here, Kagome, with Jinenji and this human from your time!" Something of this felt wrong, his demon instincts screamed at him to protect the future girl. To keep her behind felt right, even if he knew he would miss her traveling with him.
"Nani?!" Kagome screamed, as she stared down the dog demon. "Stay here? You are not going without me, Inu Yasha! How could you even suggest such a thing?" Once again the miko's aura flared with anger. How dare that baka hanyou think of even leaving her behind. They had come this far together, she promised to be by his side. Even if Makaze was more devil than demon, she would not be left behind to wonder if her friends would return or die fighting.
"No, Inu Yasha, I will stay behind. I will go with you. I cannot go back to the well, it is destroyed, nor can I return to Kaede bachan's. And…" turning sad eyes toward Jinenji and his mother she softly continued, her voice strong yet low, "I cannot stay here. I will not let you fight without me. I won't let you."
"K-Kagome?" Inu Yasha looked stunned as he listened to the girl's soft words. Tears had welled up in Kagome's eyes, but she refused to let them fall. No longer did he sense the anger in her aura, but something else, something completely different, more determined and stronger than anger. The sudden change left him near speechless. "I…"
"Don't speak!" Raising a shaky hand, Kagome slowly covered the hanyou's mouth with her fingertips. "I said I will not leave you, even if you tell me too, Inu Yasha, I will not leave. I will not stay behind either. I am a part of this, it is because of me the Shikon no Tama shattered. It is because of me Naraku has so much of the jewel now. It is because of me," she swallowed as her next words slipped painfully off her tongue, "Kikyou was brought back, all this is because of me. I will not stay and let others take care of my responsibilities."
Inu Yasha blushed as her fingers touched his lips, even if it were so subtle a contact, he still felt the heat of it. As if only now realizing he was blushing and that others were in the room, he wrapped his clawed fingers around her wrist, as if to remove her hand from his mouth. Instead, the hanyou held loosely to her, torn between enjoying his Kagome's touch and the embarrassment of the situation.
Houjo watched the scene before him with sadness. The look on Kagome's face, the look in her eyes, spoke a thousand times more than her words. He saw the love, the fear, the worry there, even if the hanyou was too ignorant or stubborn to see it. Looking about him, he noticed all eyes looking away from the two. Sango had suddenly become interested in her boomerang, stroking the surface with a polishing rag. The sabuke houshi was engrossed in meditation. When the monk had taken the cross-legged position was beyond him, last he had seen, Miroku was standing contemplating this new threat to the group.
The neko youkai was curled up by Jinenji sleeping, while the large hanyou stroked her fur, his gaze fixed on his mother stirring the contents of the stew pot. It was obvious to the future boy that they were purposefully ignoring the other two. Turning back to where Kagome and Inu Yasha stood, Houjo was shocked by what he saw.
"You big jerk! How could you think to leave Kagome behind?!" In a blink of an eye a very large pink bubble was chewing maliciously on the dog demon's pointed ears.
"Get the fuck off me you little bastard!" Inu Yasha swatted at the transformed kitsune. Shippou backed off, floating up toward the ceiling of the hut. "Come here you little whelp! I'll kick your fucking ass!" Inu Yasha crouched as if to leap up and attack the kit, only to have Kagome's deadly glare stop him cold.
"Inu Yasha…OSUAWARI!" Instantly the dog demon was plastered to the floor of the hut, his face planted into the smooth beams of the floorboards. "Shippou-chan, that was not nice! You shouldn't aggravate Inu Yasha like that!" She scolded, tapping her foot irritably as she chastised the little fox child.
"But, Kagome, he was going to leave you here! I don't want you to stay here, I want you to come with us to find Makaze!" With a pop, the kitsune transformed back into his normal form, his green eyes looking sadly at the girl he considered his adoptive mother.
"That is still no reason to act like that. You know Inu Yasha doesn't like it when you chew on his ears." The young miko reached down, scooping the fox into her arms, allowing him to snuggle deep into her embrace. "He is not leaving me here, are you Inu Yasha?" Kagome asked side glancing at the hanyou who was only now pulling himself up off the floor.
"Feh, whatever." He snorted, turning his head to the side like a disgruntled child. Reaching up a clawed hand, the hanyou massaged at his now sore ears, mentally beating the hell out of Shippou for being so annoying and troublesome.
"So, we will need to plan this if we are to find Makaze." Miroku spoke up, breaking off the last of the damaging thoughts the inu hanyou had against the kitsune.
"We wait until morning. If this Makaze is controlling this, he has to be someplace nearby, or high up." Inu Yasha returned to his seat by the fire, a serious look on his face as he thought of this new upcoming battle.
"But what if the storm is worse in the morning?" Houjo spoke up his concern. Jinenji might be scary, but the thought of facing a demon powerful enough to create such an destructive natural force as this tempest, was more frightening.
Inu Yasha glanced up at the inquiring schoolboy just as Kagome sat down beside him, pulling a blanket over her shoulders. The kitsune was curling up in her lap but now looked up expectantly at the hanyou. "Then we embrace it, we have to keep going if we are to stop it and Naraku." The dog demon closed his eyes, shutting out the annoying boy and let the comforting scent of Kagome fill him.
His eyes snapped open as he suddenly felt a weight upon his shoulder. Looking down, Kagome had laid her head on him, snuggling up to his warmth. He blushed furiously, but did not stop his miko from taking comfort in him. Instead, he silently slipped his arm about her, pulling Kagome closer to him. She would need all the sleep she could get before morning, and if it helped her to sleep better being with him, then he would allow it, the hanyou thought. For in the morning, they would brave the storm, and they would all need their strength and wits about them.
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They all jumped as a loud bang shook the hut. Something large had hit the side of the building, causing the timbers to groan and creak from the shear force of the object. The storm outside had worsened as the group slept, the wind now howling with great ferocity. The loud thudding awoke the inhabitants of the house, making them aware of the increased weather conditions and the dangers it posed, even inside the protection of the hut.
"What the fuck was that?" Inu Yasha jumped to his feet, the Tetsusaiga drawn and flaming before him.
"I'll go see what it was, stay here." Jinenji rose from his futon and began to head for the outside, but was stopped when the door to the hut flew open, revealing what appeared to be a woman, drenched and bleeding.
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A/N: Okay, yes, I know, I make you people wait for freaking ever, and I end it with a cliffie!! I am sooooo evil, but not to worry!!! I already have the next chapter started!! HEHE!! So, same time next week – yes! You have to wait a whole week; I do have a life ya know! But I promise, no more writer's block and I will keep them flowing. And so sorry the ending of this was bad.
Some info for you:
Makaze – literally means demon storm or raging storm. No, this is not from Japanese mythology like all my others, I made this one up, his appearance, when I get to it, might be a different story though. Not sure yet.