InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Blackout ❯ The Poison User ( Chapter 12 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: King Baka 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Adventure / Angst | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 05.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.8K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Adventure / Angst | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 05.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.8K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or any of the publicly known characters, plot, etc. I’m just renting them from Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc. I do own the plot of this story and any original characters I’ve created. I will make no money from this fic; I write for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my readers.
The Poison User
Mukotsu grumbled to himself as he mixed his potions. He was still a bit peeved about the events of the previous evening. I should have been able to spend the whole night with that cute young girl, the one with the Shikon fragments. Instead, Jakotsu had taken so bloody long to finish Inuyasha off, that the sun went down and he nearly wound up getting himself killed. He’d better be damn grateful that I saved his foolish ass.
He had done it without hesitation once he saw the trouble his comrade was in. There were practical reasons, but he also genuinely liked the guy. Jakotsu was a bit dim-witted, but was a decent enough traveling companion as long as you weren’t an attractive male, which unfortunately Mukotsu was not. Most of the time he preferred to be alone, but he had worked with Jakotsu a couple of times since their resurrection, and the results had been most profitable. At least he never had to fight with Jakotsu over a woman, a conflict he would invariably lose to any other member of the Shichinintai. His and Jakotsu’s interests were pretty much mutually exclusive that way.
So he had saved the perverted baka, and was glad for it. He sensed another opportunity for mutually beneficial cooperation here, and hoped to enlist his ally’s aid. He had told a Saimyoushou to inform Jakotsu that he wished to see him. Another Saimyoushou was keeping tabs on the Inu-gang as they moved closer to Mount Hakurei. The insects were creepy, but quite useful. Mukotsu was keeping pace with the Inu-gang as they traveled, Naraku’s spies allowing him to stay close but far enough away to avoid detection. Now, if he could just get Jakotsu to cooperate with him, then they could both end up with the victim they truly wanted. Or perhaps victims. That other woman was cute too. I would love to watch the fire go out of her eyes.
Suddenly he sensed a presence behind him, and grinned happily. At last something was going according to plan!
“Hey, Jakots—ack!” The garbled end of his greeting came courtesy of Jakotsu’s foot being planted firmly in his face.
“You bastard,” Jakotsu complained. “What’s the big idea with breaking up my fight with Inuyasha?”
Mukotsu growled in annoyance and smacked the foot away. “Did you forget, you imbecile, that Inuyasha was about to slaughter you?!”
Jakotsu scratched his cheek and pouted like a child. “I hate having my fun interrupted…”
Mukotsu knew that this was as close to an acknowledgement as he was going to get, so he changed the subject. They had much more important matters to discuss, after all.
“Anyway, Jakotsu, what would you say if I told you I could arrange a battle for you and Inuyasha, just the two of you?”
“Really?!” Jakotsu replied, perking up immediately.
“Indeed. All you need to do is keep Inuyasha busy while I kidnap the girls. You can have the houshi too if you want.”
“REALLY?!!! Inuyasha AND the houshi!!!” Jakotsu clapped his hands together, appearing ready to start jumping up and down at any moment. “When, when, when?!”
“Today, I think. I know the perfect place for an ambush. Just let me finish my poisons, and we’ll go make our preparations.”
“Okay!”
Then Jakotsu was off, prancing around with bouncy steps and humming softly to himself. Mukotsu shook his head. He didn’t care what that pervert had planned for Inuyasha and the houshi. As long as he had those girls to keep himself well entertained.
It certainly appeared that their haste was warranted. They crested a small rise and spied a medium-sized village laid out before them, a profound sense of déjà vu settling over them. Panicked humans fleeing in every direction, others lying dead or dying in pools of their own blood. And in the center of it all, looking quite pleased by the slaughter, stood Jakotsu. He spotted the Inu-gang a fair distance off, as if he’d been looking for them to appear in that direction. Instead of preparing himself for combat, as Inuyasha would have expected, the mercenary took off in the opposite direction.
“Son of a bitch!” Inuyasha swore, skidding to a halt and setting Kagome down. He had every intention of pursuing Jakotsu, but he wasn’t going to take Kagome into danger. Jakotsu’s retreat was highly suspicious, since the pervert had seemed so keen on fighting him yesterday. And it was broad daylight right now. Something else had to be going on for him to run away so quickly.
“Take Kagome,” he told Miroku and Sango as Kirara landed beside him.
“You do realize that this is likely a trap, Inuyasha,” Miroku posed.
“I know that! But how many more will die if we don’t kill that bastard now?”
Miroku nodded, then scooted back and helped Kagome settle in front of him. Nobody liked this, but there was nothing for it. Unless they wanted more innocent people to die by Jakotsu’s blade, they had no choice but to run into whatever trap awaited them. Or rather, Inuyasha had no choice. He made the others agree to hang back and support him from a distance. He was fairly certain he could deal with whatever the Shichinintai could throw at him, but he wasn’t so sure about his human companions. They were strong fighters, but humans in general were physically vulnerable. A hanyou could take a few severe hits and recover. For a human, one mistake could mean death.
The others reluctantly agreed to this plan, at least until their enemies had revealed themselves and they knew what they were up against. Without further delay, they set off in pursuit. Their pace was slower than before, with Kirara bearing extra weight now, but was still far faster than a human could run. Inuyasha was careful not to get too far ahead of his companions, as frustrating as that was. But soon enough, Jakotsu came into view up ahead. He was entering a narrow canyon, carved into the land by some ancient river. The ground sloped upward on either side of the entrance before leveling off on a high plateau. The canyon loomed like a giant gash in the earth, bordered by sheer, massive walls almost a hundred meters high. Inuyasha could see that it continued in a more or less straight line for several hundred meters, then cut sharply to the right. And whatever surprise lay in store for them probably lurked around that bend.
Inuyasha determined not to let Jakotsu make it that far. He accelerated, leaving Kirara behind as he charged up the slope. Soon he was sprinting along the top of the canyon, drawing abreast of and then overtaking Jakotsu. When he judged his lead was great enough, he turned and slid down the steep wall of the canyon, skidding to a halt at the bottom. Jakotsu was forced to stop as well, now faced with an angry hanyou directly in his path.
Disturbingly, the mercenary did not appear worried in the slightest to find his way barred, even after Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga. In fact, he wore a confident, shit-eating grin, as if he knew something that the hanyou didn’t. Inuyasha was just about to ask him what the hell was so funny, when movement over Jakotsu’s shoulder drew his attention.
It was Kirara and the others, entering the canyon the same way Jakotsu had. Inuyasha’s eyes widened in alarm. Sango had probably seen what he was doing and directed Kirara that way to trap Jakotsu between them. It would have been a decent plan, but for one crucial defect. The first part of the canyon, which Kirara was now flying through, was uncharted territory. Inuyasha had skirted that area in order to cut in front of Jakotsu; he didn’t have a real good idea of what was over there. And suddenly, he had the sneaking suspicion that this trap the Shichinintai had orchestrated wasn’t really for him after all. He filled his lungs to shout a warning, but it was too late.
A blast came from the canyon wall directly to Kirara’s left, spewing blue-black smoke into the narrow space. It was of a different shade than the smoke from yesterday, but Inuyasha still held his breath until Kirara emerged from the cloud a moment later. He felt elation until her transformation suddenly reversed in mid-air. She plummeted lifelessly toward the earth, leaving her human charges to free fall. It was truly fortunate that the fire-cat had only been flying a few meters above the ground. Inuyasha saw Miroku grab Kagome and swing her so he bore the brunt of the fall. The hanyou felt a surge of gratitude that the monk would think of Kagome and the baby first even at his own peril. Kagome rose to her knees, but Miroku remained prone and unmoving, possibly unconscious. He would obviously be quite battered and bruised, at any rate.
Sango was the only one who managed to descend gracefully, landing feet first and rolling to lessen the impact on her legs. She had just finished strapping her taijiya mask to her face when the expanding cloud rolled over her, obscuring all of them from view.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha yelled, moving toward her automatically. He raised Tetsusaiga just in time to block a savage strike from Jakotsutou.
“You should really worry about yourself, Inuyasha,” Jakotsu purred. “You’re mine now.”
“Get out of my fucking way, you bastard!”
“Oh my, so furious! Your angry face is sexy too.”
“You sick fu—”
The sound of another blast silenced him, and the smoke roiled out even further behind Jakotsu, a new, darker shade swirling with the old blue-black.
“Your friends are done now,” Jakotsu observed, licking his lips and staring in ecstasy at Inuyasha’s panic-stricken face. “But don’t worry. Mukotsu doesn’t like to kill quickly, especially young girls. You have time to save your friends, but you’ll have to get through me first. You’d better hurry though, before something terrible happens to them. So come at me, Inuyasha. Come at me with everything you’ve got!”
Inuyasha tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga, fighting to remain in control. He wanted nothing more than to give Jakotsu exactly what he asked for. But that was not an option; with the mercenary standing directly between him and the cloud of smoke which still might contain some of his friends, he could not risk using the Kaze no Kizu.
Inuyasha growled, realizing how perfectly they had fallen into the enemy’s trap. The Shichinintai’s goal this entire time had been to separate him from his friends, and pair him with Jakotsu while Mukotsu ambushed the rest of them. They had chosen the terrain perfectly; the only way for Inuyasha to get to his friends quickly was to go through Jakotsu. He could not hope to scale the sheer canyon walls without being torn to pieces. Nor could he flee in the opposite direction and circle back without wasting precious time, time Kagome and Sango likely did not have.
His blood boiled at the thought of what Mukotsu probably had planned for them. But despite the rage coursing through his veins, his head remained clear. So he had fallen into an enemy’s trap. That was nothing new. He would do what he had always done in the past—turn the situation on its head and make the enemy’s machinations backfire. The Shichinintai would regret the day they ever crossed him.
Inuyasha sheathed Tetsusaiga. Jakotsu seemed surprised by this, but the hanyou’s reasons were sound. For all its power, Tetsusaiga was somewhat unwieldy. It slowed him down, and mobility would be the key to this battle. He couldn’t get into a sword duel with Jakotsu, since not only would that take far too long, but it would naturally favor his opponent because of Jakotsutou’s much longer reach. No, Inuyasha knew he needed to close the distance and find a way to slip past Jakotsu. It was an extremely dangerous course of action, and he knew he would not escape injury, but his friends were counting on him. He was the only one who could rescue them from a horrible fate. Nothing else mattered.
Inuyasha took advantage of his enemy’s bewilderment to make the first move. But Jakotsu recovered quickly, the snake-like sword lancing out and forcing the hanyou to dodge after only a couple steps. He darted to the right, maintaining his forward momentum as the sword came at him again. This time he failed to correctly predict the blade’s trajectory, and had to bow his back and suck in his stomach to avoid having his intestines spilled out all over the ground. Jakotsutou’s next strike caught him off balance and left a deep gash in his thigh. With no alternative, Inuyasha leapt back out of danger and readied himself for another rush, ignoring the stinging pain which came whenever he put weight on his leg. His injuries didn’t matter. He would push his body to its limits and beyond if he had to.
Inuyasha’s next attempt ended in much the same way as the first, with two more lacerations on his back and upper arm. It became exponentially more difficult to dodge the sword the closer he got to Jakotsu. And the close confines of the canyon limited his options while still giving Jakotsutou plenty of room to come at him from unexpected directions. But he persevered, as the minutes ticked by and his wounds multiplied, until finally, he was forced to withdraw after an especially nasty slice to his shoulder.
Inuyasha stood just out of Jakotsu’s range, his posture slumped, breathing heavily. The bone at the front of his shoulder had been cut partially through, and everything above that was a bloody mess. He doubted if he would have full use of his left arm for the time being. His clothing was drenched in blood; his youkai healing abilities could not keep up with the dozens of lacerations and gouges in his flesh. If he continued like this, his fighting abilities would slowly deteriorate until Jakotsu landed a truly severe blow and finished him. He would die knowing that he had failed everyone he cared for.
“Oooh, that face is so exciting,” Jakotsu cooed, eyeing him ravenously, spittle dripping from the corner of his mouth. “That’s it, Inuyasha. There’s nothing better than watching a man slowly lose all hope. Show me true despair!”
Inuyasha shook his head against those words, baring his fangs and renewing his resolve. It couldn’t end like that, for him or his friends. There had to be a way. And if it was truly hopeless, he would still fight with all of his being, until his body gave out. The poison smoke still lingered, obscuring the area where his friends had fallen, so the Kaze no Kizu remained off the table. But he did have another trump card, an ability linked to his own youki which Jakotsu did not know about. The trouble was coming up with a way to use this technique for maximum effect, because he only got one chance to surprise his enemy with it. If he failed, he would be back at square one.
He had conjured an idea several minutes ago, but thought it too reckless at the time. Not anymore. With his body weakening, he was ready to try something desperate. Especially given the ever increasing amount of time his friends were spending in the clutches of a depraved enemy.
The next time Jakotsutou came at him, Inuyasha stood his ground. Gritting his teeth, he dug into the wound in his left shoulder and flung the blood out in a wide arc. The droplets shifted into the blades of youki he knew as the Hijin Ketsusou, his hidden attack. He had discovered it as a child, quite by accident. An oni had wounded him and backed him into a corner. He had been holding his wound, because it hurt like hell, and when the oni attacked he had felt the call of his youkai blood and swung his arm out or reflex. The strange power had saved his life that day, and it had never failed him since. This, however, would be its toughest challenge. For unless the crimson blades managed to deflect Jakotsutou, the sword was going to tear him to pieces.
The scene seemed to play out in slow motion, as the youki blades soared past Jakotsutou on both sides. One struck the sword, and was dissipated. The next two were defeated in the same way. But finally, one of the crimson projectiles impacted the sword at just the right location and angle. Jakotsutou howled, shifting violently off course and embedding itself in the ground a half dozen meters in front of Inuyasha.
“What the—”
It was a momentary hesitation, a split-second of bewilderment from Jakotsu before he regained his composure and pulled back his sword. But it was all the time Inuyasha needed. In a flash he darted the short distance, then in a graceful full-body motion, threw everything he had behind a closed-fist strike which impacted the sword just above one of the swivel joints. Jakotsutou shuddered with the tremendous impact, cracking and creaking. And when its wielder raised his arm to retract it, the snake-like body shattered into at least four pieces.
Jakotsu swore aloud, but prepared to continue the battle with the approximately half-length sword still remaining to him. It would have been a tough battle too, though Inuyasha was confident he would have won. But the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Whether it was purely his imagination, or some strange sixth sense, Inuyasha knew he could not afford to waste any more time on fighting Jakotsu. He could almost hear Kagome calling out for him. She needed him, now.
Quickly judging the distances involved, Inuyasha settled on a course of action. He leapt back a few meters, then took a running leap which would carry him up and over Jakotsu’s position in a long arc. The mercenary’s half-sword flashed harmlessly underneath him as he passed by, close enough so he could feel the displaced air. But he had calculated correctly, and as soon as he landed he took off at hanyou speed. His ears scanned behind him for sounds of pursuit, but evidently Jakotsu was smart enough not to follow. For the second time in as many meetings with Inuyasha, he had narrowly escaped death. Next time, the hanyou vowed that he would not be so lucky.
Inuyasha stopped only to see if any of his friends remained on the battlefield. The smoke had dissipated enough so that visibility was decent at close distances. Fortunately, the wind had blown the bulk of it deeper into the canyon, so that it hadn’t been hovering over his friends the whole time. His father’s youkai blood made him resistant to poison, but that stuff was acrid enough to make him cough heavily. He was not surprised to find Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara lying on the ground incapacitated, the latter two out cold and the monk barely holding onto consciousness.
“Inuyasha,” Miroku rasped weakly, “he took them. Leave me…go save…Kagome and Sango.”
“Shut up, bouzu.”
That was the end of that little proposal, as feeble as Miroku was at the moment. Yes, carrying the monk would slow him down slightly, but he could never leave a friend behind. Especially not with the Shichinintai and Naraku’s own incarnations potentially roaming around. He shuddered to think what Jakotsu would do if he found Miroku lying there, alone and helpless. So deserting him was not an option; Inuyasha would just have to hope that the small delay in his arrival would not cost Kagome or Sango dearly.
He quickly stuffed Kirara and Shippou into the front of his robes, then hoisted Miroku onto his back and launched himself into a full sprint. The monk did his best to hold in his pained groans until he finally passed out ten seconds in. Inuyasha hated to jostle the man so much with the poison in his body, but he simply could not slow down to smooth out the ride. They had no time left. Kagome needed him, now.
So he followed the scents, moving at a pace which would soon leave even his resilient body breathless. His wounds reopened with the violence of his motion, but he paid them no heed. The pain he channeled into desperation, fueling his exhausted muscles to further impossible feats. His heart pounded in his chest, both from physical exertion and the premonitions of imminent disaster running through his mind. He was close now, so close. He prayed he would not be too late.
He briefly tightened his grip on the taijiya’s waist, just to get a weak cough and a muffled curse out of her. He was going to enjoy playing with this one especially, seeing as how she’d nearly killed him. The initial ambush had gone exactly according to plan. He had pulled the cord which set off the container he’d embedded in the side of the canyon at exactly the right moment. The poison released would have little effect on humans, but would knock weaker youkai unconscious for quite a while. Any youkai-specific poison with stronger effects than that would also kill humans very quickly, and that was no fun at all. The poison he himself had shot at the group a few moments later was designed for humans, on the other hand. It quickly incapacitated all of them, entering through the eyes and skin so even the taijiya with her gas mask went down. But not before she’d flung that cursed bone boomerang at him. She’d been unable to see him clearly through the smoke, but she obviously heard his approaching footsteps. And she aimed low too, as if she’d known how short he was. If he hadn’t stumbled over a fortuitously placed rock at exactly the right moment, he’d be dead right now. As it was, the boomerang whizzed over his head, close enough to take off his head covering. That had pissed him off; he hated when people saw how bald he was. He’d given the taijiya a few good kicks for the trouble. At least none of the people who’d seen him today would live to see the sunset.
One nice thing about being one of the undead, he’d noticed, was that his body was physically stronger than before. Whereas while he’d been alive, carrying two girls would have been somewhat of a challenge, now he found it relatively easy. So he made good time, and in just a few minutes the hut he’d chosen as his den came into view. He hopped over the ditch he’d dug, then kicked over the bucket containing the reactant and smirked as a thick screen of poison rose up around the hut. The defensive measure was probably unnecessary, but one could never be too careful.
Chuckling gleefully, he dropped his girls on the floor and stood back to admire them, fingering his chin thoughtfully. Hmm…which one shall I play with first? The taijiya was scared, but she hid it behind a mask of defiance. The other one had fear written all over her face, but he sensed that she too had some fight in her. Either one would be highly enjoyable. But the taijiya had pissed him off, so should he turn his attentions to her first, or make her watch as he toyed with her friend? Decisions, decisions.
Kagome lay there helplessly, her skin crawling. She tried to steady her heartbeat and calm her mind, to think of a way out of this. It helped to look at Sango, whose gaze reflected grim encouragement. No matter what happens, be brave, the taijiya seemed to be saying. Kagome tried, she really did, but inside she was absolutely petrified. There were a very limited number of reasons why a man such as this would take two incapacitated women into his private lair. The general vibe she was getting off him seemed to confirm her fears. And beyond that, the poison coursing through her body was a major concern as well. True, it had only paralyzed her and Sango at this point. She didn’t feel like her life was in immediate danger from the toxin, but that could be misleading. Her body throbbed with dull pain, which she believed was only bearable because the poison was suppressing her nervous system. Was that the poison working to end her life, or merely a side effect of the paralysis? Their captor, whom she assumed to be Mukotsu of the Shichinintai, didn’t seem like the type of person to keep his victims alive for any significant length of time. Just long enough to satisfy his base urges, most likely.
What worried her most of all, however, was the threat to the baby inside of her. She had become cognizant of this danger almost immediately after picking herself off the ground at the battlefield. Or rather, off Miroku, who had so bravely taken the brunt of their fall for the sake of her and Inuyasha’s unborn child. She had seen Shippou lying in a heap a few feet away, and gathered him up in her arms, fearing the worst. But the kit appeared to be simply unconscious, sleeping soundly. It was then that she realized what had happened. The purpose of the poison which had been shot at them was to disable youkai, without harming any humans who happened to be in the area. It burned her throat when she breathed, but the sensation was no worse than having mild strep throat. Other than that, the poison didn’t affect her at all. But she had breathed it in, inadvertently taking it into her bloodstream. And if it could knock Shippou and Kirara unconscious, what could it do to a tiny quarter-youkai fetus?
That question had terrified her. She knew that her body formed a natural barrier between herself and the fetus, namely the placenta. But while the placenta was effective against most harmful diseases and toxins which occurred naturally, it had not evolved to combat manmade pollutants. This was why most physicians advised against smoking or drinking during pregnancy, because those toxins could make it through. So would Mukotsu’s poison penetrate the placental barrier as well? And if so, could she do anything to prevent this?
Nothing came to mind. Unlike Naraku’s miasma, Mukotsu’s poisons were not youki-based, and therefore could not be purified. But her spiritual energy was the only thing she could rely on, so she summoned it, not really knowing what she was doing but aware that she had to do something. Even if she had known how to create solid barriers, forming one around the baby was not an option. It would die without the oxygen and nutrients carried by her bloodstream. But she hoped, perhaps naively, that she could provide some assistance to her own body’s efforts to filter the toxins before reaching the baby.
Up to now, the baby seemed to be doing fine, even with the second, human-specific type of poison pervading her body. He was highly distressed due to her condition, but his aura had not diminished at all, which she would have taken as a sign of his tiny body succumbing to the toxins. Whether his apparent good health was her own body’s doing or her spiritual energy had made a difference, she might never know. But one thing was for certain—she couldn’t truly save the baby without also protecting herself. He was not nearly mature enough at this stage to survive on his own, quarter-youkai or no. If she died, then he died with her.
And this was the greatest reason she feared for her own life. Yes, she was terrified of the things Mukotsu likely had planned for her, but she would bear it all if only she could survive, so her and Inuyasha’s child would also survive. Thinking of Inuyasha gave her strength, enough to turn her attention to what she could do, rather than what Mukotsu was going to do. Her hanyou was likely fighting for his life at this very moment, desperately battling Jakotsu in an effort to break through and come to their aid. I’ll do what I can, but Inuyasha…please hurry.
“I sure am a lucky guy,” Mukotsu declared, sauntering over to her. Every thread of sanity in Kagome screamed at her to run away, but her muscles remained unresponsive. She could only watch helplessly as Mukotsu knelt next to her and grabbed her chin, roughly turning her head from side to side.
He chuckled darkly. “Such a pretty girl. And I can do whatever I want with you.” He shifted to lean over her, and Kagome screwed her eyes shut in revulsion.
“Open your eyes!” he snapped, slapping her lightly on the cheek. She reluctantly complied, sensing the threat in his tone. Steeling her resolve, she looked directly at his hideous, misshapen face, starting defiantly into those huge, bulbous eyes. She hoped to glimpse some trace of humanity within those milky white depths, but instead saw only cruelty.
“Good,” he spat, apparently satisfied. “With this face, I don’t seem to be very popular with the ladies.”
If Kagome had been paying attention, she might have reflected that the most repulsive thing about this man was certainly not the appearance of his face. But while Mukotsu had been talking, she had surreptitiously focused her spiritual energy and located his shard of the Shikon no Tama. It was in his neck, exactly where Jakotsu’s had been. The poison held her mostly immobile, but she did retain some motor control. If she could just find a way to remove the shard, then Mukotsu would die.
“What’re you thinking about, I wonder?” her captor pondered, eyeing her critically. Then he shrugged. “Eh, it doesn’t matter. I’ll make sure that you’ll be thinking only of me from now on. Let’s make a fond memory before you die, girl.”
He leaned over her again, and Kagome felt a surge of panic run through her. His face hovered over hers as he grinned down at her, saliva dripping to land on her chin before he licked his lips lasciviously. When he leaned down to kiss her, she managed to muster the muscle coordination to turn her head aside. This process repeated itself several times in rapid succession, until Mukotsu growled in frustration and grabbed her around the throat.
“Oh, hold still already,” he snarled, whatever playfulness he had exhibited earlier suddenly replaced by old pain and anger. Now he shifted position again, as if to hold her down as he ravaged her face. His free hand shoved her shoulder to the floorboards, and his leg swung over to plant his knee firmly in her belly.
Kagome reacted instinctively to the pressure on her womb. Logically, Mukotsu probably couldn’t hurt the baby with his body weight alone unless he actually stood on her stomach. But her protective reflexes made no such distinction. It took a herculean effort, but she was able to twist her body to the side, so that Mukotsu’s knee slid off her belly and clunked painfully against the floor.
“Ow!” he cried, drawing back and rubbing his bruised knee. “What the hell is wrong with you, girl?” He glared at her, baffled by the way she curled in on herself and wrapped her arms around her belly.
“My knee couldn’t have hurt that much,” he observed thoughtfully. “Do you have an injury or something?” A quick lift of her shirt revealed that she didn’t. “No, that’s not it. Then why are you so protective of your be—”
He froze, eyes going impossibly wide. He studied her, somehow finding his answer in the way she glared defiantly back at him. Then his bottom lip quivered, and tears pooled in his eyes. Far from inspiring sympathy, the sudden show of emotion filled Kagome with dread. Perhaps her instinctive reaction had not been wise.
“You…you…you WHORE!!!”
He reared back and punched her in the face, so hard that her teeth chattered and her body was flung to the side. When she opened her eyes again, she found Sango gazing at her, no longer concealing her fear. Kagome was suddenly very afraid. The single greatest thing keeping her baby alive was Mukotsu’s ignorance of its presence. Now he knew it was there, and he could do anything he wanted. There was little she could do to stop him.
He yanked her back by the hair and proceeded to slap her across the face a few times, shouting insults all the while. Finally, he dropped her and began to pace around the hut, talking animatedly.
“I can’t believe it. My rare beauty, knocked up by some jerk! The bastard’s probably a lot more handsome than me, too. It was that damn hanyou, wasn’t it?” he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at her. Again, he inferred her response from her silence, closing both hands into fists and growling furiously. Then his face lit up, as if he’d thought of a wonderful idea. His eyes scanned the hut, then settled on something which was out of Kagome’s line of sight. His lips twisted into a vicious smirk as he stalked over and picked up whatever object had caught his attention.
“No…please don’t.”
The soft, desperate plea came not from Kagome, but from Sango. Evidently, the taijiya could see what had interested Mukotsu so, and had discerned his intentions. The horrified expression on her face made Kagome’s blood run cold.
Mukotsu cackled cruelly. “I can’t have any fun with a woman knowing she’s carrying another man’s brat. So the natural solution, I suppose, is to remove the brat.”
He appeared in front of her, and Kagome’s heart nearly stopped. There, held in his hand like a weapon, were the pokers from the fire pit. The black metal seemed to glint evilly, perfectly illustrating how sharp they were. And suddenly she knew why Sango had been so horrified.
“Come on, girl. Let’s get rid of that hanyou taint in your belly.”
A/N – Ick, two creepy chapter endings in a row. The pokers are those two little chopstick-like metal things connected by a ring, that Kagome tried to stab Mukotsu with in canon. This is supposed to conjure up thoughts of coat-hanger abortions. I’m assuming that something similar was done in Japan in the feudal era. Their culture doesn’t seem very forgiving of pregnancy outside marriage, so I think it’s a pretty safe assumption. Again, ick. I will try to be a little quicker with the next chapter this time.
The Poison User
Mukotsu grumbled to himself as he mixed his potions. He was still a bit peeved about the events of the previous evening. I should have been able to spend the whole night with that cute young girl, the one with the Shikon fragments. Instead, Jakotsu had taken so bloody long to finish Inuyasha off, that the sun went down and he nearly wound up getting himself killed. He’d better be damn grateful that I saved his foolish ass.
He had done it without hesitation once he saw the trouble his comrade was in. There were practical reasons, but he also genuinely liked the guy. Jakotsu was a bit dim-witted, but was a decent enough traveling companion as long as you weren’t an attractive male, which unfortunately Mukotsu was not. Most of the time he preferred to be alone, but he had worked with Jakotsu a couple of times since their resurrection, and the results had been most profitable. At least he never had to fight with Jakotsu over a woman, a conflict he would invariably lose to any other member of the Shichinintai. His and Jakotsu’s interests were pretty much mutually exclusive that way.
So he had saved the perverted baka, and was glad for it. He sensed another opportunity for mutually beneficial cooperation here, and hoped to enlist his ally’s aid. He had told a Saimyoushou to inform Jakotsu that he wished to see him. Another Saimyoushou was keeping tabs on the Inu-gang as they moved closer to Mount Hakurei. The insects were creepy, but quite useful. Mukotsu was keeping pace with the Inu-gang as they traveled, Naraku’s spies allowing him to stay close but far enough away to avoid detection. Now, if he could just get Jakotsu to cooperate with him, then they could both end up with the victim they truly wanted. Or perhaps victims. That other woman was cute too. I would love to watch the fire go out of her eyes.
Suddenly he sensed a presence behind him, and grinned happily. At last something was going according to plan!
“Hey, Jakots—ack!” The garbled end of his greeting came courtesy of Jakotsu’s foot being planted firmly in his face.
“You bastard,” Jakotsu complained. “What’s the big idea with breaking up my fight with Inuyasha?”
Mukotsu growled in annoyance and smacked the foot away. “Did you forget, you imbecile, that Inuyasha was about to slaughter you?!”
Jakotsu scratched his cheek and pouted like a child. “I hate having my fun interrupted…”
Mukotsu knew that this was as close to an acknowledgement as he was going to get, so he changed the subject. They had much more important matters to discuss, after all.
“Anyway, Jakotsu, what would you say if I told you I could arrange a battle for you and Inuyasha, just the two of you?”
“Really?!” Jakotsu replied, perking up immediately.
“Indeed. All you need to do is keep Inuyasha busy while I kidnap the girls. You can have the houshi too if you want.”
“REALLY?!!! Inuyasha AND the houshi!!!” Jakotsu clapped his hands together, appearing ready to start jumping up and down at any moment. “When, when, when?!”
“Today, I think. I know the perfect place for an ambush. Just let me finish my poisons, and we’ll go make our preparations.”
“Okay!”
Then Jakotsu was off, prancing around with bouncy steps and humming softly to himself. Mukotsu shook his head. He didn’t care what that pervert had planned for Inuyasha and the houshi. As long as he had those girls to keep himself well entertained.
* * *
Inuyasha cursed under his breath, sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him. Kagome gripped his shoulders tightly, her scent speaking of frustration and anger. He knew the feeling. It seemed that the events of yesterday were repeating themselves. The scent of blood, and lots of it, had reached his nose only moments ago. The group had set out immediately to investigate; Sango had not even taken the time to change into her taijiya armour before she and Miroku mounted Kirara. It certainly appeared that their haste was warranted. They crested a small rise and spied a medium-sized village laid out before them, a profound sense of déjà vu settling over them. Panicked humans fleeing in every direction, others lying dead or dying in pools of their own blood. And in the center of it all, looking quite pleased by the slaughter, stood Jakotsu. He spotted the Inu-gang a fair distance off, as if he’d been looking for them to appear in that direction. Instead of preparing himself for combat, as Inuyasha would have expected, the mercenary took off in the opposite direction.
“Son of a bitch!” Inuyasha swore, skidding to a halt and setting Kagome down. He had every intention of pursuing Jakotsu, but he wasn’t going to take Kagome into danger. Jakotsu’s retreat was highly suspicious, since the pervert had seemed so keen on fighting him yesterday. And it was broad daylight right now. Something else had to be going on for him to run away so quickly.
“Take Kagome,” he told Miroku and Sango as Kirara landed beside him.
“You do realize that this is likely a trap, Inuyasha,” Miroku posed.
“I know that! But how many more will die if we don’t kill that bastard now?”
Miroku nodded, then scooted back and helped Kagome settle in front of him. Nobody liked this, but there was nothing for it. Unless they wanted more innocent people to die by Jakotsu’s blade, they had no choice but to run into whatever trap awaited them. Or rather, Inuyasha had no choice. He made the others agree to hang back and support him from a distance. He was fairly certain he could deal with whatever the Shichinintai could throw at him, but he wasn’t so sure about his human companions. They were strong fighters, but humans in general were physically vulnerable. A hanyou could take a few severe hits and recover. For a human, one mistake could mean death.
The others reluctantly agreed to this plan, at least until their enemies had revealed themselves and they knew what they were up against. Without further delay, they set off in pursuit. Their pace was slower than before, with Kirara bearing extra weight now, but was still far faster than a human could run. Inuyasha was careful not to get too far ahead of his companions, as frustrating as that was. But soon enough, Jakotsu came into view up ahead. He was entering a narrow canyon, carved into the land by some ancient river. The ground sloped upward on either side of the entrance before leveling off on a high plateau. The canyon loomed like a giant gash in the earth, bordered by sheer, massive walls almost a hundred meters high. Inuyasha could see that it continued in a more or less straight line for several hundred meters, then cut sharply to the right. And whatever surprise lay in store for them probably lurked around that bend.
Inuyasha determined not to let Jakotsu make it that far. He accelerated, leaving Kirara behind as he charged up the slope. Soon he was sprinting along the top of the canyon, drawing abreast of and then overtaking Jakotsu. When he judged his lead was great enough, he turned and slid down the steep wall of the canyon, skidding to a halt at the bottom. Jakotsu was forced to stop as well, now faced with an angry hanyou directly in his path.
Disturbingly, the mercenary did not appear worried in the slightest to find his way barred, even after Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga. In fact, he wore a confident, shit-eating grin, as if he knew something that the hanyou didn’t. Inuyasha was just about to ask him what the hell was so funny, when movement over Jakotsu’s shoulder drew his attention.
It was Kirara and the others, entering the canyon the same way Jakotsu had. Inuyasha’s eyes widened in alarm. Sango had probably seen what he was doing and directed Kirara that way to trap Jakotsu between them. It would have been a decent plan, but for one crucial defect. The first part of the canyon, which Kirara was now flying through, was uncharted territory. Inuyasha had skirted that area in order to cut in front of Jakotsu; he didn’t have a real good idea of what was over there. And suddenly, he had the sneaking suspicion that this trap the Shichinintai had orchestrated wasn’t really for him after all. He filled his lungs to shout a warning, but it was too late.
A blast came from the canyon wall directly to Kirara’s left, spewing blue-black smoke into the narrow space. It was of a different shade than the smoke from yesterday, but Inuyasha still held his breath until Kirara emerged from the cloud a moment later. He felt elation until her transformation suddenly reversed in mid-air. She plummeted lifelessly toward the earth, leaving her human charges to free fall. It was truly fortunate that the fire-cat had only been flying a few meters above the ground. Inuyasha saw Miroku grab Kagome and swing her so he bore the brunt of the fall. The hanyou felt a surge of gratitude that the monk would think of Kagome and the baby first even at his own peril. Kagome rose to her knees, but Miroku remained prone and unmoving, possibly unconscious. He would obviously be quite battered and bruised, at any rate.
Sango was the only one who managed to descend gracefully, landing feet first and rolling to lessen the impact on her legs. She had just finished strapping her taijiya mask to her face when the expanding cloud rolled over her, obscuring all of them from view.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha yelled, moving toward her automatically. He raised Tetsusaiga just in time to block a savage strike from Jakotsutou.
“You should really worry about yourself, Inuyasha,” Jakotsu purred. “You’re mine now.”
“Get out of my fucking way, you bastard!”
“Oh my, so furious! Your angry face is sexy too.”
“You sick fu—”
The sound of another blast silenced him, and the smoke roiled out even further behind Jakotsu, a new, darker shade swirling with the old blue-black.
“Your friends are done now,” Jakotsu observed, licking his lips and staring in ecstasy at Inuyasha’s panic-stricken face. “But don’t worry. Mukotsu doesn’t like to kill quickly, especially young girls. You have time to save your friends, but you’ll have to get through me first. You’d better hurry though, before something terrible happens to them. So come at me, Inuyasha. Come at me with everything you’ve got!”
Inuyasha tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga, fighting to remain in control. He wanted nothing more than to give Jakotsu exactly what he asked for. But that was not an option; with the mercenary standing directly between him and the cloud of smoke which still might contain some of his friends, he could not risk using the Kaze no Kizu.
Inuyasha growled, realizing how perfectly they had fallen into the enemy’s trap. The Shichinintai’s goal this entire time had been to separate him from his friends, and pair him with Jakotsu while Mukotsu ambushed the rest of them. They had chosen the terrain perfectly; the only way for Inuyasha to get to his friends quickly was to go through Jakotsu. He could not hope to scale the sheer canyon walls without being torn to pieces. Nor could he flee in the opposite direction and circle back without wasting precious time, time Kagome and Sango likely did not have.
His blood boiled at the thought of what Mukotsu probably had planned for them. But despite the rage coursing through his veins, his head remained clear. So he had fallen into an enemy’s trap. That was nothing new. He would do what he had always done in the past—turn the situation on its head and make the enemy’s machinations backfire. The Shichinintai would regret the day they ever crossed him.
Inuyasha sheathed Tetsusaiga. Jakotsu seemed surprised by this, but the hanyou’s reasons were sound. For all its power, Tetsusaiga was somewhat unwieldy. It slowed him down, and mobility would be the key to this battle. He couldn’t get into a sword duel with Jakotsu, since not only would that take far too long, but it would naturally favor his opponent because of Jakotsutou’s much longer reach. No, Inuyasha knew he needed to close the distance and find a way to slip past Jakotsu. It was an extremely dangerous course of action, and he knew he would not escape injury, but his friends were counting on him. He was the only one who could rescue them from a horrible fate. Nothing else mattered.
Inuyasha took advantage of his enemy’s bewilderment to make the first move. But Jakotsu recovered quickly, the snake-like sword lancing out and forcing the hanyou to dodge after only a couple steps. He darted to the right, maintaining his forward momentum as the sword came at him again. This time he failed to correctly predict the blade’s trajectory, and had to bow his back and suck in his stomach to avoid having his intestines spilled out all over the ground. Jakotsutou’s next strike caught him off balance and left a deep gash in his thigh. With no alternative, Inuyasha leapt back out of danger and readied himself for another rush, ignoring the stinging pain which came whenever he put weight on his leg. His injuries didn’t matter. He would push his body to its limits and beyond if he had to.
Inuyasha’s next attempt ended in much the same way as the first, with two more lacerations on his back and upper arm. It became exponentially more difficult to dodge the sword the closer he got to Jakotsu. And the close confines of the canyon limited his options while still giving Jakotsutou plenty of room to come at him from unexpected directions. But he persevered, as the minutes ticked by and his wounds multiplied, until finally, he was forced to withdraw after an especially nasty slice to his shoulder.
Inuyasha stood just out of Jakotsu’s range, his posture slumped, breathing heavily. The bone at the front of his shoulder had been cut partially through, and everything above that was a bloody mess. He doubted if he would have full use of his left arm for the time being. His clothing was drenched in blood; his youkai healing abilities could not keep up with the dozens of lacerations and gouges in his flesh. If he continued like this, his fighting abilities would slowly deteriorate until Jakotsu landed a truly severe blow and finished him. He would die knowing that he had failed everyone he cared for.
“Oooh, that face is so exciting,” Jakotsu cooed, eyeing him ravenously, spittle dripping from the corner of his mouth. “That’s it, Inuyasha. There’s nothing better than watching a man slowly lose all hope. Show me true despair!”
Inuyasha shook his head against those words, baring his fangs and renewing his resolve. It couldn’t end like that, for him or his friends. There had to be a way. And if it was truly hopeless, he would still fight with all of his being, until his body gave out. The poison smoke still lingered, obscuring the area where his friends had fallen, so the Kaze no Kizu remained off the table. But he did have another trump card, an ability linked to his own youki which Jakotsu did not know about. The trouble was coming up with a way to use this technique for maximum effect, because he only got one chance to surprise his enemy with it. If he failed, he would be back at square one.
He had conjured an idea several minutes ago, but thought it too reckless at the time. Not anymore. With his body weakening, he was ready to try something desperate. Especially given the ever increasing amount of time his friends were spending in the clutches of a depraved enemy.
The next time Jakotsutou came at him, Inuyasha stood his ground. Gritting his teeth, he dug into the wound in his left shoulder and flung the blood out in a wide arc. The droplets shifted into the blades of youki he knew as the Hijin Ketsusou, his hidden attack. He had discovered it as a child, quite by accident. An oni had wounded him and backed him into a corner. He had been holding his wound, because it hurt like hell, and when the oni attacked he had felt the call of his youkai blood and swung his arm out or reflex. The strange power had saved his life that day, and it had never failed him since. This, however, would be its toughest challenge. For unless the crimson blades managed to deflect Jakotsutou, the sword was going to tear him to pieces.
The scene seemed to play out in slow motion, as the youki blades soared past Jakotsutou on both sides. One struck the sword, and was dissipated. The next two were defeated in the same way. But finally, one of the crimson projectiles impacted the sword at just the right location and angle. Jakotsutou howled, shifting violently off course and embedding itself in the ground a half dozen meters in front of Inuyasha.
“What the—”
It was a momentary hesitation, a split-second of bewilderment from Jakotsu before he regained his composure and pulled back his sword. But it was all the time Inuyasha needed. In a flash he darted the short distance, then in a graceful full-body motion, threw everything he had behind a closed-fist strike which impacted the sword just above one of the swivel joints. Jakotsutou shuddered with the tremendous impact, cracking and creaking. And when its wielder raised his arm to retract it, the snake-like body shattered into at least four pieces.
Jakotsu swore aloud, but prepared to continue the battle with the approximately half-length sword still remaining to him. It would have been a tough battle too, though Inuyasha was confident he would have won. But the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Whether it was purely his imagination, or some strange sixth sense, Inuyasha knew he could not afford to waste any more time on fighting Jakotsu. He could almost hear Kagome calling out for him. She needed him, now.
Quickly judging the distances involved, Inuyasha settled on a course of action. He leapt back a few meters, then took a running leap which would carry him up and over Jakotsu’s position in a long arc. The mercenary’s half-sword flashed harmlessly underneath him as he passed by, close enough so he could feel the displaced air. But he had calculated correctly, and as soon as he landed he took off at hanyou speed. His ears scanned behind him for sounds of pursuit, but evidently Jakotsu was smart enough not to follow. For the second time in as many meetings with Inuyasha, he had narrowly escaped death. Next time, the hanyou vowed that he would not be so lucky.
Inuyasha stopped only to see if any of his friends remained on the battlefield. The smoke had dissipated enough so that visibility was decent at close distances. Fortunately, the wind had blown the bulk of it deeper into the canyon, so that it hadn’t been hovering over his friends the whole time. His father’s youkai blood made him resistant to poison, but that stuff was acrid enough to make him cough heavily. He was not surprised to find Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara lying on the ground incapacitated, the latter two out cold and the monk barely holding onto consciousness.
“Inuyasha,” Miroku rasped weakly, “he took them. Leave me…go save…Kagome and Sango.”
“Shut up, bouzu.”
That was the end of that little proposal, as feeble as Miroku was at the moment. Yes, carrying the monk would slow him down slightly, but he could never leave a friend behind. Especially not with the Shichinintai and Naraku’s own incarnations potentially roaming around. He shuddered to think what Jakotsu would do if he found Miroku lying there, alone and helpless. So deserting him was not an option; Inuyasha would just have to hope that the small delay in his arrival would not cost Kagome or Sango dearly.
He quickly stuffed Kirara and Shippou into the front of his robes, then hoisted Miroku onto his back and launched himself into a full sprint. The monk did his best to hold in his pained groans until he finally passed out ten seconds in. Inuyasha hated to jostle the man so much with the poison in his body, but he simply could not slow down to smooth out the ride. They had no time left. Kagome needed him, now.
So he followed the scents, moving at a pace which would soon leave even his resilient body breathless. His wounds reopened with the violence of his motion, but he paid them no heed. The pain he channeled into desperation, fueling his exhausted muscles to further impossible feats. His heart pounded in his chest, both from physical exertion and the premonitions of imminent disaster running through his mind. He was close now, so close. He prayed he would not be too late.
* * *
Mukotsu whistled jauntily to himself as he ambled off to his temporary lair. Really, what was there to not be happy about? He had a pretty girl under each arm, and his ally was taking care of the one meddlesome male capable of ruining his fun. The only reason he was moving his victims away at all was to get out of earshot. Hearing any of the screams Inuyasha made as Jakotsu tortured him to death would put quite a damper on his mood. No, he wanted to focus exclusively on those delightful, involuntary sounds his girls would soon be making. He briefly tightened his grip on the taijiya’s waist, just to get a weak cough and a muffled curse out of her. He was going to enjoy playing with this one especially, seeing as how she’d nearly killed him. The initial ambush had gone exactly according to plan. He had pulled the cord which set off the container he’d embedded in the side of the canyon at exactly the right moment. The poison released would have little effect on humans, but would knock weaker youkai unconscious for quite a while. Any youkai-specific poison with stronger effects than that would also kill humans very quickly, and that was no fun at all. The poison he himself had shot at the group a few moments later was designed for humans, on the other hand. It quickly incapacitated all of them, entering through the eyes and skin so even the taijiya with her gas mask went down. But not before she’d flung that cursed bone boomerang at him. She’d been unable to see him clearly through the smoke, but she obviously heard his approaching footsteps. And she aimed low too, as if she’d known how short he was. If he hadn’t stumbled over a fortuitously placed rock at exactly the right moment, he’d be dead right now. As it was, the boomerang whizzed over his head, close enough to take off his head covering. That had pissed him off; he hated when people saw how bald he was. He’d given the taijiya a few good kicks for the trouble. At least none of the people who’d seen him today would live to see the sunset.
One nice thing about being one of the undead, he’d noticed, was that his body was physically stronger than before. Whereas while he’d been alive, carrying two girls would have been somewhat of a challenge, now he found it relatively easy. So he made good time, and in just a few minutes the hut he’d chosen as his den came into view. He hopped over the ditch he’d dug, then kicked over the bucket containing the reactant and smirked as a thick screen of poison rose up around the hut. The defensive measure was probably unnecessary, but one could never be too careful.
Chuckling gleefully, he dropped his girls on the floor and stood back to admire them, fingering his chin thoughtfully. Hmm…which one shall I play with first? The taijiya was scared, but she hid it behind a mask of defiance. The other one had fear written all over her face, but he sensed that she too had some fight in her. Either one would be highly enjoyable. But the taijiya had pissed him off, so should he turn his attentions to her first, or make her watch as he toyed with her friend? Decisions, decisions.
Kagome lay there helplessly, her skin crawling. She tried to steady her heartbeat and calm her mind, to think of a way out of this. It helped to look at Sango, whose gaze reflected grim encouragement. No matter what happens, be brave, the taijiya seemed to be saying. Kagome tried, she really did, but inside she was absolutely petrified. There were a very limited number of reasons why a man such as this would take two incapacitated women into his private lair. The general vibe she was getting off him seemed to confirm her fears. And beyond that, the poison coursing through her body was a major concern as well. True, it had only paralyzed her and Sango at this point. She didn’t feel like her life was in immediate danger from the toxin, but that could be misleading. Her body throbbed with dull pain, which she believed was only bearable because the poison was suppressing her nervous system. Was that the poison working to end her life, or merely a side effect of the paralysis? Their captor, whom she assumed to be Mukotsu of the Shichinintai, didn’t seem like the type of person to keep his victims alive for any significant length of time. Just long enough to satisfy his base urges, most likely.
What worried her most of all, however, was the threat to the baby inside of her. She had become cognizant of this danger almost immediately after picking herself off the ground at the battlefield. Or rather, off Miroku, who had so bravely taken the brunt of their fall for the sake of her and Inuyasha’s unborn child. She had seen Shippou lying in a heap a few feet away, and gathered him up in her arms, fearing the worst. But the kit appeared to be simply unconscious, sleeping soundly. It was then that she realized what had happened. The purpose of the poison which had been shot at them was to disable youkai, without harming any humans who happened to be in the area. It burned her throat when she breathed, but the sensation was no worse than having mild strep throat. Other than that, the poison didn’t affect her at all. But she had breathed it in, inadvertently taking it into her bloodstream. And if it could knock Shippou and Kirara unconscious, what could it do to a tiny quarter-youkai fetus?
That question had terrified her. She knew that her body formed a natural barrier between herself and the fetus, namely the placenta. But while the placenta was effective against most harmful diseases and toxins which occurred naturally, it had not evolved to combat manmade pollutants. This was why most physicians advised against smoking or drinking during pregnancy, because those toxins could make it through. So would Mukotsu’s poison penetrate the placental barrier as well? And if so, could she do anything to prevent this?
Nothing came to mind. Unlike Naraku’s miasma, Mukotsu’s poisons were not youki-based, and therefore could not be purified. But her spiritual energy was the only thing she could rely on, so she summoned it, not really knowing what she was doing but aware that she had to do something. Even if she had known how to create solid barriers, forming one around the baby was not an option. It would die without the oxygen and nutrients carried by her bloodstream. But she hoped, perhaps naively, that she could provide some assistance to her own body’s efforts to filter the toxins before reaching the baby.
Up to now, the baby seemed to be doing fine, even with the second, human-specific type of poison pervading her body. He was highly distressed due to her condition, but his aura had not diminished at all, which she would have taken as a sign of his tiny body succumbing to the toxins. Whether his apparent good health was her own body’s doing or her spiritual energy had made a difference, she might never know. But one thing was for certain—she couldn’t truly save the baby without also protecting herself. He was not nearly mature enough at this stage to survive on his own, quarter-youkai or no. If she died, then he died with her.
And this was the greatest reason she feared for her own life. Yes, she was terrified of the things Mukotsu likely had planned for her, but she would bear it all if only she could survive, so her and Inuyasha’s child would also survive. Thinking of Inuyasha gave her strength, enough to turn her attention to what she could do, rather than what Mukotsu was going to do. Her hanyou was likely fighting for his life at this very moment, desperately battling Jakotsu in an effort to break through and come to their aid. I’ll do what I can, but Inuyasha…please hurry.
“I sure am a lucky guy,” Mukotsu declared, sauntering over to her. Every thread of sanity in Kagome screamed at her to run away, but her muscles remained unresponsive. She could only watch helplessly as Mukotsu knelt next to her and grabbed her chin, roughly turning her head from side to side.
He chuckled darkly. “Such a pretty girl. And I can do whatever I want with you.” He shifted to lean over her, and Kagome screwed her eyes shut in revulsion.
“Open your eyes!” he snapped, slapping her lightly on the cheek. She reluctantly complied, sensing the threat in his tone. Steeling her resolve, she looked directly at his hideous, misshapen face, starting defiantly into those huge, bulbous eyes. She hoped to glimpse some trace of humanity within those milky white depths, but instead saw only cruelty.
“Good,” he spat, apparently satisfied. “With this face, I don’t seem to be very popular with the ladies.”
If Kagome had been paying attention, she might have reflected that the most repulsive thing about this man was certainly not the appearance of his face. But while Mukotsu had been talking, she had surreptitiously focused her spiritual energy and located his shard of the Shikon no Tama. It was in his neck, exactly where Jakotsu’s had been. The poison held her mostly immobile, but she did retain some motor control. If she could just find a way to remove the shard, then Mukotsu would die.
“What’re you thinking about, I wonder?” her captor pondered, eyeing her critically. Then he shrugged. “Eh, it doesn’t matter. I’ll make sure that you’ll be thinking only of me from now on. Let’s make a fond memory before you die, girl.”
He leaned over her again, and Kagome felt a surge of panic run through her. His face hovered over hers as he grinned down at her, saliva dripping to land on her chin before he licked his lips lasciviously. When he leaned down to kiss her, she managed to muster the muscle coordination to turn her head aside. This process repeated itself several times in rapid succession, until Mukotsu growled in frustration and grabbed her around the throat.
“Oh, hold still already,” he snarled, whatever playfulness he had exhibited earlier suddenly replaced by old pain and anger. Now he shifted position again, as if to hold her down as he ravaged her face. His free hand shoved her shoulder to the floorboards, and his leg swung over to plant his knee firmly in her belly.
Kagome reacted instinctively to the pressure on her womb. Logically, Mukotsu probably couldn’t hurt the baby with his body weight alone unless he actually stood on her stomach. But her protective reflexes made no such distinction. It took a herculean effort, but she was able to twist her body to the side, so that Mukotsu’s knee slid off her belly and clunked painfully against the floor.
“Ow!” he cried, drawing back and rubbing his bruised knee. “What the hell is wrong with you, girl?” He glared at her, baffled by the way she curled in on herself and wrapped her arms around her belly.
“My knee couldn’t have hurt that much,” he observed thoughtfully. “Do you have an injury or something?” A quick lift of her shirt revealed that she didn’t. “No, that’s not it. Then why are you so protective of your be—”
He froze, eyes going impossibly wide. He studied her, somehow finding his answer in the way she glared defiantly back at him. Then his bottom lip quivered, and tears pooled in his eyes. Far from inspiring sympathy, the sudden show of emotion filled Kagome with dread. Perhaps her instinctive reaction had not been wise.
“You…you…you WHORE!!!”
He reared back and punched her in the face, so hard that her teeth chattered and her body was flung to the side. When she opened her eyes again, she found Sango gazing at her, no longer concealing her fear. Kagome was suddenly very afraid. The single greatest thing keeping her baby alive was Mukotsu’s ignorance of its presence. Now he knew it was there, and he could do anything he wanted. There was little she could do to stop him.
He yanked her back by the hair and proceeded to slap her across the face a few times, shouting insults all the while. Finally, he dropped her and began to pace around the hut, talking animatedly.
“I can’t believe it. My rare beauty, knocked up by some jerk! The bastard’s probably a lot more handsome than me, too. It was that damn hanyou, wasn’t it?” he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at her. Again, he inferred her response from her silence, closing both hands into fists and growling furiously. Then his face lit up, as if he’d thought of a wonderful idea. His eyes scanned the hut, then settled on something which was out of Kagome’s line of sight. His lips twisted into a vicious smirk as he stalked over and picked up whatever object had caught his attention.
“No…please don’t.”
The soft, desperate plea came not from Kagome, but from Sango. Evidently, the taijiya could see what had interested Mukotsu so, and had discerned his intentions. The horrified expression on her face made Kagome’s blood run cold.
Mukotsu cackled cruelly. “I can’t have any fun with a woman knowing she’s carrying another man’s brat. So the natural solution, I suppose, is to remove the brat.”
He appeared in front of her, and Kagome’s heart nearly stopped. There, held in his hand like a weapon, were the pokers from the fire pit. The black metal seemed to glint evilly, perfectly illustrating how sharp they were. And suddenly she knew why Sango had been so horrified.
“Come on, girl. Let’s get rid of that hanyou taint in your belly.”
A/N – Ick, two creepy chapter endings in a row. The pokers are those two little chopstick-like metal things connected by a ring, that Kagome tried to stab Mukotsu with in canon. This is supposed to conjure up thoughts of coat-hanger abortions. I’m assuming that something similar was done in Japan in the feudal era. Their culture doesn’t seem very forgiving of pregnancy outside marriage, so I think it’s a pretty safe assumption. Again, ick. I will try to be a little quicker with the next chapter this time.