InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seemingly Insignificant ❯ The Lustful Lover ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

4: The Lustful Lover

The sun was setting.

Orange, pink and red hues splayed across the land, the colours dancing on my black hair and the surface of the lake I was standing by. The girls accompanying me gave out little squeals as they saw the sunset. I could infer from their excited chatter that they planned to return to the village as soon as possible, and I had to agree with them: the forest held many dangers for a girl at night…

“Koharu!” One of the girls, Sayuri, called. “If you've filled your pot, it's about time we left.”

I sighed. “I'm coming,” I said dully, walking towards the lake, bending down to collect the clear, sweet water. The twittering increased behind me. I knew exactly what they were talking about, and yet, how could I help it?

How could any girl help it?

Having filled the pot, I turned, my eyes once again on the sunset. So beautiful… so melancholy… so symbolic. I felt that, in many ways, my happiness was experiencing its last sunset. Life had become routine, normal… there was nothing to look forward to, nothing to relish, and nothing to hope for… Life had started to become an eternal, dreamless sleep. Never would I feel the warmth of the blood in my cheeks as a gloved hand caught my arms, while indigo-blue eyes stared at me, intense and concerned, contrasting with a playful smile…

“We're going, Koharu,” Sayuri said, finally exasperated. “But come soon though; you don't want Taiki breaking his head with worry.” Giving a small wink, she hurried to join the girls, and soon she was out of sight.

Taiki…

Taiki Sakomoto, son of the village head, and the man I was supposed to marry in a few days. It seemed so wrong somehow; sure, Taiki loved me deeply and I could see that, but another had already captured my heart. I respected Taiki, I liked him, and I admired him, but love… no. There was only one person who had taught me what true love was, and I was never going to seem him again. It was so unfair.

The clay pot slipped from my numb fingers, shattering into pieces on impact, water splashing everywhere.

I dropped to my knees, the tears dripping from my cheeks mingling with the water.

“Miroku…”

By all that was holy, how I missed him! He had been the ray of light that had brightened my miserable life as a slave. He had been the one I'd truly fallen in love with, the one whose memory always brought a lingering smile to my face even in the midst of the direst of toils.

“Aww… why is the little lady crying?”

I froze at the unfamiliar, mocking male voice, not looking up. What…?

“Yes, Ryu, we shouldn't leave her like this, especially in the dark,” another voice sounded, sneering and dripping with malice. “Why don't we go comfort the young lady?”

Oh my God… I didn't recognise those voices, but I did recognise the sneer in their tones. This did not bode well for me at all. I still did not look up.

“Come on girl,” a third voice said suddenly, grabbing my forearm roughly and trying to pull me up to my feet. “No!” I cried, trying to jerk away from his grip.

There were at least six men, all big, bulky and rough looking, with almost identical sneers pasted on their beefy faces. I could see what they planned to do with me in their gleaming eyes, and my struggles to escape my captor increased manifold.

“Don't be so feisty, girl,” the one holding me grunted, tightening his grip further, causing pain to travel up my arm, and my eyes to see red. Giving out a high-pitched shriek, I bent my face down and clamped my teeth ferociously into the skin of my captor's beefy forearm. The man cried out in pain, immediately letting go, while I used the temporary freedom to look for an escape route. The men were surrounding me on all sides; the only way to go was deeper into the forest, which held many youkai. But at that moment, I just didn't care. I needed to get away from the men.

I ran into the bowels of the forest as fast as my legs could carry me.

Dark shapes of the trees and foliage sprang up all around me, the shadows of their gnarled branches and trunks seeming like wraiths, hungry to envelop me into their terrifying hold. Overhanging branches and thorn bushes scratched against my kimono and exposed skin, as I heard the man whose arm I'd bitten order the rest of them to get into the forest after me.

Great, I thought, shaking my head. Of all the men I could bite, I had to bite their leader.

That just decreased my chances of survival to… less than negative, for sure.

As I ran deeper and deeper into the forest, I could hear vague growls and snarls all around. Youkai? I hoped not, though they most certainly were. I found myself hoping that Miroku, my houshi-sama, would make a miraculous appearance once again, swinging his shakoujou against the demons, protecting me.

At that moment, my foot came in contact with a large broken tree branch lying on the forest floor, and I tripped, landing with a big thud and a grunt. I froze as I tried to get up, smelling the stench of a demon leaping from a tree above me, onto my vulnerable back.

Screaming, I rolled onto my back, trying to crush the relatively small youkai under my body weight. Its claws tightened their hold on my back, in response to my efforts, digging into my skin. I could feel the blood - by Buddha, it was hot! - seep out and stain my kimono. Against all reasonable discretion, I screamed my heart out, twisting over and tearing the back of my kimono off, the youkai falling off with nothing more than bloody shreds clutched in its claws. I started running again, and I heard - no, felt - those men's footsteps coming closer and closer to me. They had been alerted to my presence by my screams and struggles.

Truly, it was all over for me now.

Tears blurring my vision, coupled with the pain from the long gashes on my bare back, the forest around me seemed to sway, the shadows getting bigger and bigger, reality fading away into fantasy… I imagined I could see the ravine of the netherworld in front of me, with the boiling fiery pits of hell bubbling fire at the bottom. I skid to a stop in at the edge of the ravine.

Is this my destiny? I wondered. Maybe it was… Throughout my life, I had yearned - so deeply - for a great many things, only to be refused those wants, only to be rejected with a laugh and a shake of the head, only to have those desires to be termed as naïveté.

Miroku had been the only person who had taken me seriously… had looked at me with something akin to respect in his mesmerising indigo eyes. A monk - a handsome one at that - looking at me with such concern had really gone to my head, I suppose. I couldn't get rid of Miroku's memory. I couldn't stop thinking about him - about the elegant contours of his face, the deep pools of indigo that were his eyes, the sensuous curve of his smile that just seemed to beg for a kiss…I had fallen in love with him.

But now, I wonder… had it really been love? Or just lust? A scramble to a light I could never reach? The second time I saw him, it had been so obvious - the female demon-slayer accompanying him did feel something for Miroku. A beautiful, brave, strong, intelligent demon-slayer. Everything I could never be. And yet… I still hoped. I still hoped that Miroku might want me, but when he left the village, I knew that I had no chance. But even then, I still hoped.

I was the lustful lover, after all, wasn't I?

Suddenly something hit my soul with the power of a thousand bricks. Was that what I had been reduced to? A lustful girl who craved for the lover of another woman? Had my lust for Miroku really reduced my dignity so much?

Questions ricocheted within me, each one amplifying my guilt and regret.

Dear God, regret!

I looked down the ravine again. Imaginary or not, this was the death I deserved.

Taking a deep breath, I jumped.

It isa real ravine, after all, I thought, as the wind beat against my face. The shredded folds of my kimono flapped behind me. I closed my eyes, awaiting my death.

Suddenly, my descent was stopped. I opened my eyes, craning my neck to look behind me. A fold of my kimono had caught upon a protruding, gnarled tree branch, and I was hanging upside down. I couldn't make any sense of it. Was I supposed to die, or not?

Straining to bring my torso about, I managed to clutch the branch with my right hand. With the other, I pulled the kimono free, so my legs immediately dangled down, the movement pulling on the tree branch. I clutched it tightly with both hands, until the branch stopped shaking.

I looked up. I wasn't at a great distance from the edge - maybe a metre, or so.

Suddenly, a face peered down at me, and my eyes widened in horror as I recognised who it was. White teeth glinted in the darkness as the face sneered. It disappeared a moment later, to be replaced by a voice:

“Hey boss! The girl's here!”

Oh no. I closed my eyes again, tears welling up behind closed eyelids. I could hear the excited voices of the rogues as they scrambled to pull me up. It was all over for me.

Suddenly, I heard an all too familiar voice. “Leave her alone!”

My eyes snapped open, and my heart skipped a beat. Miroku…?

Was he really here? To save me?

My doubts were confirmed, as I heard the sounds of a fight commencing above - a series of jingles and hard thuds against flesh that undoubtedly came from a shakoujou. My heart swelled in delight, as I heard the men scream and fall one by one. Finally, a face peered out again - a face I wasn't able to recognise in the increasing darkness. “Koharu,” it said, its voice a tired mutter, but there was great affection underlying it.

“Miroku…?” I whispered.

“Koharu… come on…” He seemed to be in pain. An arm stretched out, and I stretched mine as well, but our fingers were unable to meet.

“Wait,” he muttered, disappearing back onto the ledge. “I think I got some rope here.”

Tears of joy cascaded down my face. He was really here. Miroku. My houshi-sama.

“So you came to save me,” I said, my voice quivering with emotion. “I didn't think you would come, you know.”

There was a pause before he spoke. “Why would you think that, Koharu?” His voice was still a strained whisper, which meant that he'd gotten himself seriously injured in the fight. “I'll always be there for you - wasn't that the promise I'd made to you the first time I saw you?”

A rope unravelled itself down the face of the cliff, its end coming to a stop a couple of inches above me. I looked up to see that he was at the other end of the rope clutching it tight. “Hold on,” he whispered. “I'll pull you up.”

Smiling through my tears, I reached up and began to close the fingers of my right hand on the rope, when an ominous creaking - of wood - sounded in my ears. I saw to my horror that the branch, unable to bear my weight any longer, was giving away!

“Koharu!” Miroku cried, a high-pitched sense of urgency in his voice. “Quick! Hold on!”

I grabbed onto the rope with both hands just as the branch gave away completely, tumbling into the depths of the ravine. I dangled precariously against the wall of the cliff, clinging on for dear life.

“Don't worry,” Miroku grunted through gritted teeth. “I'll get you up, no matter what it takes!”

With that pronouncement, he proceeded to pull me up, bit by bit. I could hear from his grunts that it was a very painful process for him, and I wished very deeply that there were some way I could help him. Swinging ever so slightly to the wall of the cliff, I planted my feet against it, reducing the pull of my body on the rope. Slowly - excruciatingly slowly - the two of us worked together in pulling me up.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, I was at the edge of the cliff. Holding the rope with one hand, he reached out to me with the other. I clutched at it, my fingers enveloped by his calloused hands. He pulled me up, and momentum caused me to fall against his chest.

“Oh, I'm so… so… glad to see you… I… Oh, Buddha…” I blubbered, my face buried in his chest, tears staining his clothing.

“Koharu,” he said softly, stroking my head. Then, suddenly, a coarse blanket fell across my bare shoulders. “I don't want you to catch a cold,” he explained. I started. There was something infinitely different about him…

I broke the embrace and leaned back a little, to catch a glimpse of his face. I gasped. Instead of the elegant features, small black ponytail and rich indigo-blue eyes of a charmer that I had expected to see, I found myself staring at closely-cropped brown hair, warm, honest brown eyes and the stoic features of a hard-working villager.

Taiki Sakomoto.

I stared at him with a mixture of horror, surprise, and… betrayal. So Miroku-sama hadn't come to save me after all… But what about the sounds of the shakoujou that I'd heard? My eyes flitted to the side to spot a long metallic chain with a sickle at the end - probably Taiki's or the other men's weapon. So that was what had caused the sound.

“Are you all right, Koharu?” Taiki's voice drew my attention back to him - back to his concerned brown eyes… concern mingled with pain…

“Yes,” I replied, the whirlwind of emotions within me choking my voice. “Are you… are you hurt?”

He smiled. “A little, but it's only a scratch - nothing to worry about.”

My eyes examined his torso and spotted three long, bleeding gashes in his side that were decidedly much more than scratches. Even with such a wound, he had given his all to save me… I, who had scorned him so…

My eyes filled with tears once again. Here I was, lusting after a person who'd never regard me as more than a little girl, while there was someone who obviously loved me deeply enough to die for me, and I had completely ignored him!

“Taiki!” I cried, burying my face into his chest once more, sobbing. “I'm so sorry… I love you… Sorry…”

Once again, I could feel his hands gently, unobtrusively stroking me. “I love you, too, Koharu,” he said. “Please don't run away like that again… please… you know I'll be there for you when you need me.”

“I know,” I whispered, leaning into his embrace even more. Behind me, dawn teased the edges of the horizon. A remarkably short night it had been, but a night that had changed my life forever. I was no longer the lustful lover. I had found Taiki; I had found peace, purpose, love. There was nothing that could make me happier than the moment I leant into his strong arms.

I had found myself.