The Path We Walk
Chapter 6: A Message from the South
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.
AN: Introducing the new fragrance from Hairann Cliché number 6:
1. Sess referring to any female as a bitch-the true definition is a female dog in heat- and while this would make sense seeing as he is a inu demon it would not be accurate all the time.
Okies guys few things, one this will be my last clichés AN unless reviewers send in others since I'm out of ideas lol. I know this chapter is a bit shorter but I wasn't even sure if I was going to get it out today since I overslept and had to go shopping. And heads up I probably will not get a chapter out tomorrow since I will probably be going to my father-in-law's to eat and going out dancing with my husband tomorrow so will be too busy to update. Anyways enjoy the next chapter and R&R :)
Warning: A bit of angst in this chapter however this story is only rated T so will not be too bad.
Question to readers: Do we despise Tadashii yet or does he need more work?
Here we go people the chapter you all have...some of you...I have been waiting for! Sesshoumaru gets his arm back!
Feeling the incoming of a youkai, Kagome grabbed her bow and stood up, readying an arrow and pointing it in the direction it was coming from. "Miko." Sesshoumaru called out grabbing her attention and when she looked over he shook his head. Looking at him confused, Kagome shrugged her shoulders and lowered the bow just as the youkai entered the clearing.
"Speak." Sesshoumaru called out not bothering to look at his messenger and instead turned back to look out at the trees.
"Lord Sesshoumaru we received a message from the taiyoukai of the south." The youkai informed him after catching his breath. Sesshoumaru turned to him giving him a look to continue. "Lord Chikara has requested your presence at his home. Seems they have called a meeting of taiyoukai of the four corners." The messenger explained as he noticed the others in the clearing and went to ask about it but Sesshoumaru cut him off.
"Why does he not come to this Sesshoumaru?" Sesshoumaru wondered deciding it better be for a good reason or he wasn't going to waste his time going down south.
"Lord Chikara said that he was injured in battle recently and there are far too many injured around him for him to leave. The attacks on the youkai there have gotten worse." He replied and after a wave of Sesshoumaru's hand, headed back toward where he had come.
"We leave at dawn." Sesshoumaru informed them as he went back to staring out at the trees.
"Very well, we should go say goodbye to Lady Kaede. Will be back soon." Kagome said as she picked up Shippo and headed back toward the village.
True to his word, the group left moments after dawn and walked the entire day, other than the stop for lunch, and continued on well after dark. Most of the day had been spent with Rin and Shippo playing -resting on Ah-Un when they got tired- and Kagome talking to the kids or Jaken. Very little was spoken to Sesshoumaru and for that he was glad.
Kagome had just put the children to bed and sat down next to the fire to stare into it. "Sleep." Sesshoumaru commanded causing her to look over at him.
"I don't sleep much while out of the road, I have a son to look out for." Kagome explained as she turned her attention back to the fire and tended to it.
"Do you think this Sesshoumaru incapable of protecting him?" Sesshoumaru wondered raising his eye brow at her.
"I'm sure you can Lord Sesshoumaru, however I will not push my responsibilities onto others. It is my job to watch out for and protect him, not yours." Kagome replied shaking her head.
"Sleep miko. We will walking all day tomorrow." Sesshoumaru reminded her as he looked back out toward the trees surrounding them.
"Fine but I'll take tomorrow's watch and you get some sleep." Kagome insisted as she laid down and covered herself with an extra blanket.
"Tadashii-sama!" a man called out as he rushed up the hill to where the houshi was standing looking out at the village below.
"Numbers?" Tadashii requested as he turned to face the man next to him before making his way back to the camp not far away from them.
"About 20 Tadashii-sama, including wenches and gaki. Mostly farmers, I couldn't find any weapon huts." the man informed him as he followed along behind him.
"Very well we attack an hour before dawn." Tadashii addressed all of his men this time before taking his place beside the fire.
"Hai Tadashii-sama!" the men called out together as they raised them mugs in cheer for the morrow's battle.
Mid-afternoon a few days later found the group entering a small village inhabited by youkai, Jaken had informed them this was the last stop before entering into the southern territories. They had decided to pick up supplies so they could continue on quickly through the south without having to stop since the meeting of the four was fast approaching.
"You'd think I'd be used to their stares by now." Kagome mumbled to herself when she realized most of the youkai were currently staring at her as they made their way into the village.
"Miko-sama!" a youkai called out from behind them and Kagome turned around to find a female Uma youkai trying to make her way over, but another Uma youkai was holding her back.
"It is not a good idea koi, stay away from her." the male Uma insisted, but his mate would have none of it.
"It will not hurt to ask, she is traveling with a taiyoukai is she not?" the female asked pulling out of her mate's grasps and making her way over to the group, whom had stopped to watch the sight before them. As she came closer Kagome took the time to look over her appearance and noticed she looked much like the Centaurs she had read about. The lower half of her body was that of a horse and her upper that of a women.(1)
"How can I help?" Kagome asked with a smile as the female stopped in front of her to bow in respect to Sesshoumaru and then to Kagome as well.
"Miko-sama my son has a high fever but our healer has been called away to another village and will not return for some days. Might you be willing to see my son?" she pleaded and Kagome didn't need to be a demon to see the worry pouring off of the youkai.
"Of course. Master Jaken might you be so kind as to get me some more arrows and food supplies while Shippo and I tend to the lad?" Kagome asked turning her attention to the little toad.
"Sure." Jaken grumbled about having more work as he started away while Sesshoumaru went to talk to the village head.
"Don't worry Master Jaken, Rin will help you." Rin called out cheerfully as she raced after him.
"Take us to your son." Kagome said with a smile as she turned back to the Uma youkai and, with Shippo on her shoulder, she followed them back to their hut.
It didn't take long to tend to the boy and, after giving his mother the herbs in case his fever spiked again, her and Shippo headed back into the center of the village to find the others. "Miko-sama this is for you." the male Uma youkai she had seen earlier said as he held out a handful of gems.
"Keep them. You do not need to pay me." Kagome assured him with a smile and spotted the others coming their way.
"Are you sure miko-sama?" the Uma asked confused.
"Yes." Kagome replied and bowed, to which he returned, before turning and walking over to the others. "Ready?" Kagome wondered as she took her stuff from Jaken and put it into her bag.
"Hn." was the only response as Sesshoumaru turned and headed back out of the village.
A few minutes after they had left the village Jaken could contain his curiosity any longer and turned to look up at Kagome. "Why did you refuse payment for your services?" Jaken asked, he could not understand why a ningen would do something without expecting anything in return.
"I did receive payment, however I refused it in the form of gems." Kagome said looking down at him with a smile. Seeing he was still confused Kagome continued, "I received both their thanks and a learning experience for Shippo since he had yet to tend to a fever. However neither were the true reason I did it." Kagome explain as she reached into a side pocket of her bag and grabbed a couple of lollipops and passed them out to Shippo, Rin and Jaken.
Looking back up Kagome noticed that Sesshoumaru had turned to her with a raised eye brow and Jaken still looked confused. "I helped them simply because it was the right thing to do." Kagome replied with a smile as she turned to watch the kids running around giggling.
Late that night after everyone, other than Sesshoumaru and Kagome, had fallen asleep he looked up from his spot at the base of a tree and noticed she was staring into the fire again. "Sleep miko." Sesshoumaru commanded turning his gaze away from her and back out into the trees.
"We've been over this Lord Sesshoumaru. Every other day is my turn to watch and yours to sleep. I realize you don't want another's help, but if they are there offering it there is nothing wrong or weak about accepting it. How long has it been since you slept? I doubt you've had even a wink since you heard about that baka's attacks so close to your border have you?" Kagome asked turning her attention from the fire to the taiyoukai not far away.
Receiving no reply she decided to continue, if nothing else she might get some conversation out of him. "Why do you hate the houshi-baka so much anyways? I doubt it's because of his views on demons, I can't see you going after him until he attacks you or one of yours, and I haven't seen you hate anyone so much that their name alone causes you to growl other than your half brother. And even then it wasn't this bad. So spill what's your beef with this guy?" Kagome inquired and after a few minutes she had given up and turned back to the fire when he finally answered her.
"This Sesshoumaru does not like cowards." Sesshoumaru replied turning his attention back to the miko.
"No I don't suppose you would. Let me guess he came upon you one day while you were healing and tried to attack you." Kagome ventured turning her attention back to Sesshoumaru and noticed he had raised an eye brow at her.
"Hai." Sesshoumaru replied after a moment, he had hidden it on the outside, but he had been slightly shocked that the miko had gotten it correct on the first try.
"Even more reason not to like him then." Kagome decided out loud to herself as she turned back to tend to the fire.
"Cause he attacked this Sesshoumaru?" Sesshoumaru inquired, briefly wondering why the miko would care if someone attacked him or not.
"No because had it been anyone else he would probably killed them when they were already weakened from another fight. No man would attack someone who has already been wounded, and like you, Lord Sesshoumaru, I can not stand cowards." Kagome replied as she mentally added to the list of reasons to hate Tadashii. If this kept up the list would be longer than Sesshoumaru was old before they ever even met back up with him.
"Shippo make sure Rin doesn't see this!" Kagome called out and with a quick nod he jumped off her shoulder and raced back to Rin to turn her away from the sight before them. "Why is there no smell?" Kagome wondered turning away from the gruesome sight to look at the taiyoukai beside her.
"The ofuda." Sesshoumaru replied seemingly bored with the whole thing. As though there wasn't a town of slaughtered youkai laying on the ground in front of them.
"Why block the scent? Unless they wanted to make sure no one received a warning before stumbling upon them. It's a warning." Kagome realized speaking more to herself then to the others. Looking around she began counting the bodies to figure out how many graves would be needed when her eyes fell upon a human woman. "Lord Sesshoumaru she's carrying a hanyou isn't she?" Kagome inquired not bothering to turn to face him and instead looked sadly at the pregnant woman in front of her.
After following her gaze, he let his eyes rest on the woman she was referring to before answering. "Hai, hanyou and youkai are carried higher than ningen."
"So in other words it's not just demons but also any human that is with demons he's after." Kagome decided out loud to herself before shaking her head and pulling her bag off of her back. "Master Jaken can I get your help? Lord Sesshoumaru can you go have the children pick flowers?" Kagome requested as she pulled two retractable shovels out of her bag and handed one to Jaken once she had opened it up completely.
Sesshoumaru was about to yell at the miko for telling him what to do until he saw her start to dig and decided it wasn't worth it since if she had sent Jaken to get flowers with them she'd be alone in digging and would take that much longer. Instead he merely growled a warning at her, deciding to remind her who was in charge later, and walked past Shippo and Rin. "Come." Sesshoumaru commanded without bothering to turn to see if they did.
After a few hours they had finished digging the graves and Kagome stood up to stretch. "You can take a break Master Jaken, I'll place the bodies into the graves if you'll be so kind as to refill the graves when I am done." Kagome said not bothering to wait for his answer as she moved over to the first body and began dragging it back to the grave.
Jaken thought about it for only a moment before deciding that filling in dirt was a much better job than dragging the youkai corpses around and with a quick 'sure' went and sat down.
After all of the villagers had been buried, Kagome laid the flowers the kids had picked on their graves and said a small prayer, that Miroku had taught her, for each of them before turning back to the others. "He will pay for not heeding my warning." Kagome swore out loud to herself as she brushed past everyone and started away from the village.
"Tadashii-sama!" a man called out as he rushed to his side and waited until he turned to him to give his report. "20 more men have arrived asking to join your ranks. They hail from the castle of Lord Taishita and came with a message from the Lord stating that he wishes he too could join you but his wife is pregnant with his heir." the man reported as he nodded behind him to show the new recruits standing not far from them.
"Very well." Tadashii replied as he walked over to the men. "Perhaps your Lady will bring the heir into a world free of kitanai akuma." Tadashii called out gaining cheers from not only the new men but his own as well.
All Kagome wanted to do was crawl into her sleeping bag and fall asleep but everything seemed to be against her doing that. First she had to fix dinner, then heal Shippo's skinned knee he got from playing with Rin, and put the kids to bed. Now that Jaken and the children were a sleep, she should be able to as well right? Nope instead it was now the demon lord keeping her from her much needed sleep.
"How long have you been able to do that miko?" Sesshoumaru inquired and for a moment Kagome's tired mind couldn't figure out what he was referring to but after thinking for a minute she realized what he meant.
"I've been able to heal for about an year now." Kagome replied as she laid down on her blanket thinking that was the end of the conversation, she was wrong again.
"Why did you not heal yourself?" Sesshoumaru asked as he glanced at her from his spot at the base of a tree.
"It doesn't work on myself. I guess it's the Kami's way to make sure mikos take care of others rather than just themselves." Kagome replied after a yawn and closed her eyes beginning to drift off. But still the taiyoukai wouldn't let her rest.
"You will restore this Sesshoumaru's arm." Sesshoumaru commanded and that, in his mind, was the end of it, however a certain miko had other ideas. Now weather it was the lack of sleep, what she had seen and done that day, or perhaps the fact that the arrogant demon was getting on her last nerve, they may never know. What ever the reason, Kagome decided to reply in what was possibly the worst way.
Sitting up she stared at him for a moment before busting up laughing. "Why should I?" Kagome asked in between fits of laughter which abruptly ended when she found herself pinned to a tree a moment later with the clawed hand of a demon around her neck.
"This Sesshoumaru will kill you if you don't miko." Sesshoumaru warned having no real intention of killing her, hurting sure, but she was far too fun to just kill off. Not that he would ever tell her that.
Kagome thought about this for a moment before smirking. "Very well Lord Sesshoumaru." Kagome replied with a snort as she reached her arm down, allowed a large amount of healing to pool in her hand and grabbed onto what was left of his arm. The power surged into his arm causing it to instantaneously heal, -markings and all- bones, tendons, and veins all regrowing and connecting in the span of a second. All of this, along with the fact that she had done it none to gently, caused Sesshoumaru to hiss in pain and let go of her neck.
Deciding her job was done, Kagome turned and started back toward her blanket, but a hand on her wrist stopped her. He whipped her back around to face him while emitting a growl at her. So in retaliation, once again probably caused by lack of sleep and already being pissed off at the demon, she grabbed the arm he was holding her with and allowed a little bit of purifying power to seep through her fingers.
Sesshoumaru almost dropped her wrist when he felt the stinging from her power on his wrist but stopped himself at the last second and instead growled at her again. He was expecting her to up the power flow, try to get away, or even yell at him. He, however, did not expect her to growl back. He, Lord Sesshoumaru, taiyoukai of the western lands was being growled at -again- by none other than a little ningen miko. Instead of trying to run or scream or even being afraid of him, she was simply growling back. Slightly intrigued, Sesshoumaru merely raised a delicate eye brow at her.
1. I have read myths where the Centaurs were male only and some where they had females as well. Since these are in fact Uma youkai and not Centaurs it really doesn't matter, just thought I would point this out in case anyone wanted to bring up the fact that Centaurs where known to be only male.
Translations
Hai-yes
Miko-priestess
Ningen-human
Chikara-Strength (Chi-kah-rah)
Youkai-demon
Taiyoukai-demon lord
Inu-dog
Gaki-kids
Uma-horse
Koi-love (used this way it is a pet name between lovers/mates)
Taishita-great/important (Tie-she-tah)
Kitanai-filthy
Akuma- demon
Kami-a God
Ofuda-a talisman issued by Shinto shrines
Houshi-Buddhist priest
Tadashii-righteous (Tah-dah-she)
-Sama-honorific used for respect or Lord/Lady
Hanyou-half demon
Baka-idiot/stupid
-Baka- implies insult rather than respect
(The names are pronounced going by what I remember from taking Japanese back in high school so may not be perfect)
AN: Well there's the next chapter. Please R&R, good and bad reviews are both welcome however I will just ignore flames. Let me know if it sounds to cliché so I can edit it correctly
