InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tsubaki's Revenge ❯ Miyatsu ( Chapter 28 )

Disclaimer: This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.

 

Tsubaki's Revenge, Part XXVIII: Miyatsu

His head must be split open to be hurting so bad. Miyatsu groaned, then tried to lift his hand, intending to touch his forehead and see if it was truly in two pieces or not. He groaned again as stabbing pain ran up his arm at the attempt to move it. His fingers twitched, and his hands announced that both of them hurt even worse than his arms. In fact, his entire body ached, as if something had fallen on him. With most of it falling on his head, from the way every part of his skull, including his nose was throbbing. Even his ears were in on the chorus, as they insisted on ringing; like a pair of high-pitched bells sized to be deliberately out of tune with each other.

"M-Mistress?" The voice seemed curiously muffled, and not quite human.  "Tsubaki-s-sama? Is that you?"

Tsubaki? Miyatsu's wandering wits suddenly re-ordered themselves, bringing back his memory. He'd been trying to block the dark priestess' return attack on Kikyo, after they'd shattered her outer shield. The power behind that attack had been frighteningly large, enough that it would have killed Kikyo-sama in an instant. Unfortunately, his power had already been drained in the initial attack. He'd known that an ordinary shield would never survive that intended attack. Instead, he had tried to cast one of the shielding spells he'd learned during his recent stay at one of the western temples, one that would, if properly cast, reflect the power used against it back to the attacker. Unfortunately, it was one he had not quite managed to perfect. He had rather hoped that desperation would substitute for skill—

Stupid monk.

"M-mistress?"

Definitely a female voice. But a servant of the dark priestess? Alarm flickered in his still somewhat muddled head. Telling himself to ignore the pain, Miyatsu began searching with one hand for his staff, only to encounter pieces of wood. His staff must have shattered, he realized, reaching inside his robe for the pocket that contained his ofuda, his sets of papers infused with charms. They were still present, he discovered. Relieved, and realizing that the owner of the voice could not be planning an immediate attack, Miyatsu decided that it was time to start figuring out what had happened after his spell had misfired.

And get rid of the horrible ringing.

Carefully, he opened his eyes. At first, he saw nothing but blackness, but eventually, darker silhouettes began to resolve themselves against a speckled background. It was night, he realized, and he was seeing tree limbs and leaves against the starry sky. The stars, however, were not as bright as they might have been. Not moving his head, he began scanning the sky, looking for the waxing moon. He finally glimpsed it from the corner of his eye. It was low in the west. Which meant that he'd been knocked out for almost half the night.

If he hadn't been a monk, he would have sworn. This was bad. It wasn't his side that had won, that seemed obvious. But if they'd lost, then why was he still alive?

He suddenly realized that the discordant noise in his ears was not the aftermath of the broken spell, but was something outside of his aching head. Groaning, he rolled over onto his side, looking around. He spotted the short stake with the glowing ofuda tied to it. Unfortunately, it was just out of reach. Glaring at the stake, Miyatsu forced himself onto his hands and knees, waited out the surge of nausea that accompanied that movement, and then crawled to the stake and plucked it out of the ground. Immediately, the ringing stopped, much to his relief. Setting a ward to make an audible alarm made sense, when the person to be protected wasn't the caster. But setting a discordant alarm had to be deliberate. Either that, or Tsubaki has no ear at all, he groused to himself.

Movement attracted his eye, and the monk realized that the ward spell had also been part of a larger shielding spell, which had also come down when he had removed the stake. Squinting, he saw that the form was rotund, and somewhat short in human terms.  It appeared to be wearing a kimono, and some sort of scarf on its head. On either side of the scarf were two triangular—ears?

"Oh!" The figure twitched. "You're not the mistress!" It gave a bow. "Please, please forgive this one! I did not mean to disturb your sleep—I will go now—" It turned to leave. As it did so, its striped tail came into view.

"Tanuki-san, wait! Please."

The tanuki jumped, then turned back to face him. "Sir?" it asked, sounding apprehensive.

A tanuki. Miyatsu gingerly eased himself to a seated position, interest sparking despite his headache and his nausea. What was a dark priestess doing with a tanuki servant? He'd always thought that dark priestesses—like most magic-using humans who chose to use their powers against others—worked alone. "You did not disturb me, tanuki-san," he said reassuringly. "I had an accident, and was knocked out. Your mistress—Tsubaki, you said—?—must have been the person who put up a ward and shield around me. A pity that she could not have stayed to receive my thanks."

"She did? My mistress said she was leaving with the hanyo and wouldn't be back for several days. I was just searching for some herbs when I sensed a kind of, um, explosion. Something about it felt like my mistress, and it wasn't very far away, and I was afraid she might have been hurt again, so I came—is she all right?"

"If your mistress was the person who set the ward, then she must be all right, tanuki-san."

"Oh. Of course." The tanuki sounded relieved. "I should have known that." She gave him another bow. "Thank-you, sir. I will leave you alone, then."

"Wait, tanuki-san." She turned back. Miyatsu gave her the best smile he could manage, between his headache and his increasingly-uneasy stomach. "Please forgive me for asking a favor of you, tanuki-san. You spoke of gathering herbs—do you by any chance have any herbs for a truly ferocious headache? I fear my horses must be halfway to the next province by now."

"Oh, no, they aren't," exclaimed the tanuki, sounding surprised. "They're right here—I think some youkai must have cornered them and ate them. See?" She pointed.

Ate them? Miyatsu whipped his head around to look in the direction indicated. The motion was ill-considered. He caught a glimpse of two mostly-denuded skeletons, before the rapid motion—and a whiff of stench getting past the stuffiness in his nose—upset the uneasy equilibrium. His stomach had its way, and he was not able to move fast enough to avoid soiling his robes. The nausea faded as his stomach emptied itself, but his headache seemed to redouble. He fought unconsciousness out of sheer stubbornness, supporting himself with one hand, eyes closed tightly, throat burning. He vaguely knew that he couldn't afford to faint, though he couldn't recall why.

A cool paw patted his forehead. "Ningen-sama?" came the tanuki's voice. "You are ill? Can you hold on if I carry you? I have remedies in my hut which work on humans." Miyatsu didn't remember saying yes, but the next thing he noticed was being lifted up, with fur under his hands. There was a soft 'pop', and an abrupt sensation of a rising rapidly. His nausea threatened to return, and he swallowed hard several times to keep his stomach from rebelling. The nausea faded, and he realized that a strong breeze was cooling his bare scalp, and that what had been cloth under his fingers had changed to a smooth softness, which felt something like leather, but much softer and warmer.  His entire body was being supported by that softness.

Curiosity should have had him looking around and learning what was happening. The horrific headache and uncertain stomach, coupled with a vague awareness that he should know what was happening, kept his eyes closed.

Miyatsu found himself, sometime later, starting to be able to think again, as a surprisingly bland potion proved to tame both his headache and his nausea. Holding a cup of water in his left hand—which hurt less than his right, Miyatsu felt restored enough to start looking around. 'Hut' might have been a bit of a misnomer—the tanuki's shelter was actually a shallow cave, which apparently had been built out beyond the entrance with woven branches. The fire was towards the back of the cave, underneath a natural chimney. He was propped up along one wall, near the fire, a pad stuffed with what smelled to be dried grasses behind his shoulders and head. His outermost robe had been removed and was being wiped clean by the tanuki, while his kimono was down around his waist. Looking down, Miyatsu examined himself. Most of the cuts caused by the splinters were small, and had only had to have the wood picked out and the cut cleaned. One large splinter had lodged in his left bicep and had had to be cut out, which the tanuki had done with surprising skill, given the clumsy appearance of her paws. A strip of cloth bound that wound, and more strips wound around the palm of both hands.

So. Miyatsu took a sip of water, and then closed his eyes to think. Tsubaki had almost certainly captured Kikyo and retained her hold on the hanyo. She had, for some reason, decided not to kill him, and even took time and effort to make sure he was protected against predators. Did that mean she still had some vestiges of conscience? Or did she have some other motives for leaving him alive?

At the moment, that question had to stay unresolved. What mattered were his actions. It must be getting very late. Tsubaki was probably assuming that he would be unable to catch up to her before she finished murdering the miko and the hanyo. That would explain why the horses had been destroyed: to prevent his being able to catch up. So what was he going to do? He had promised Kikyo to help her rescue her hanyo: he intensely disliked the thought of failing, regardless of his opinion of her fascination for the hanyo. Two steps were needed: he had to figure out a way to get to Tsubaki before she killed the two, and he had to figure out a way to fight her without his staff. But how was he to do even the first step?

Opening his eyes, he studied the tanuki, trying to call up all the lore he knew about her kind. They were shape-shifters, by repute, and inclined to mischief. They were also said to be somewhat gullible. Miyatsu narrowed his eyes. This tanuki seemed rather naïve, didn't she? She had said that she had come to see if her mistress had been injured, yet she had apparently not even the considered the possibility that he was a foe to her mistress.

Shape-shifter. He was certain she had shifted shapes to bring him to the cave, but the pain had been so bad that he hadn't been paying attention. But he did have a few vague recollections, and if they were reasonably accurate...

"Tanuki-san," he said. The tanuki looked up, and he gave her a smile. "Would you grant me the honor of knowing your name? I would give you proper thanks for your assistance to my humble self."

She looked surprised, then gratified: or so he thought—it was hard to read a muzzled, furred face. "Yukuuku, sir."

"And my name is Miyatsu, Yukuuku-san. I thank-you from the bottom of my heart for succoring my wounded body. I am indebted to you, Yukuuku-san."

"Oh." Her eyes opened wide, and she sat back from her work, forepaws dangling limply, her ears fully upright. "Ah, well, it was, oh, it was nothing!"

"You must permit me to disagree, Yukuuku-san," he said, smiling at her. "Just taking me here to this cave—however did you manage it? My head was hurting so badly that I didn't pay attention; but it must have been very difficult to carry me, given that I am taller than yourself."

"Oh no, Miyatsu-sama! It was simple—I just pulled you onto my back, then transformed to my flying form, and brought you here."

"You flew?" Miyatsu responded with apparent amazement and admiration, even as he mentally gave a small shout of satisfaction. He'd been right.  "That's amazing!"

She looked flustered and flattered both.  Miyatsu felt a twinge of conscience, at what he planned to do.  If she had been serving Tsubaki, then the dark priestess was going to be furious when she saw the tanuki helping him. The tanuki could be in trouble, would be in trouble if Tsubaki defeated them again. It wasn't right to take advantage of the obviously naïve tanuki and put her in harms' way.

But there were more important lives at stake, he argued with himself. He must and would do everything in his power to rescue the miko. And the hanyo, since he had given his word. He would try to work things out so that the tanuki wouldn't be in immediate danger from the dark priestess. As for tricking the creature, he would have to take that burden on his soul, and atone for it later. Kikyo's and the hanyo's lives were far more important than the wrong of manipulating a mere tanuki.

He gave Yukuuku his most charming smile. At least the tanuki was female, he thought, as he considered what to say. That would make it easier, to pretend he was flattering a beautiful young woman.

Come to that, she might well be a beautiful young woman. For a tanuki.