InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ Quest for the Knights ( Chapter 55 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter Fifty-Five: Quests for the Knights

 

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama!” Kagome called out again, the sparkle of her luminescent grin shimmering as if stars on a clear, summer night. The quiet commotion continued to stir with gasps of excitement and murmurs of unremitting adoration serving as the waves which rumbled below her. Silent and seemingly unaffected, the youkai lord stepped out from beneath the soft plumes of blossom-laden branches and spied up at the jubilant miko. Glowing above him with the brilliant radiance of moonlight reflecting on the rippling surface of a lake, Sesshoumaru stared up in subtle amazement at the finely adorned woman he could scarcely recognize. His nearly imperceptibly wider eyes and slightly raised brows lost to her in the distance, she leaned out further with her freshly painted nails gripping the window sill. “Sesshoumaru-sama! Over here!”

 

“Yes, my love,” another voice answered candidly before the tai youkai could reply. Hair bound in a high ponytail and harnessed in gold trimmed armor lacquered in bright red, one of the knights stepped forward confidently, flashing a smile of victory at the other suitors. “As your Lord Sesshoumaru, I have come for you as declared so that we may wed. Fear not our joining, for I shall spoil you with countless treasures and riches from my many conquests. You shall know what it means to be a true princess.”

 

“Hn. Imposter,” a dark voice accused in a growl at the man's back, petrifying the crimson knight in his steps. “Your claims are pure deceit at best. I am Lord Sesshoumaru and that beautiful maiden speaks only to me. She shall accept my hand in marriage and no other's”

 

“Ha, it is you who lies, not I,” the knight contested boldly; his betraying sweat beading at his hairline as he peered slowly over his shoulder at his denouncer. Swathed in black to hide the stains of blood, a thickly muscled man bearing the scars of battle glared with a splintered chicken bone protruding from his lips. Cascading around his shoulders, coarse, black hair framed his venomous look, their different lengths shorn by the blades of his enemies who were now no more than food for crows.

 

“Are you calling me a liar?”

 

“You're the one who first accused me of deceit. What is your proof that you should be allowed to proclaim that I am deceitful and you are not?”

 

“This endless cycle of ridiculousness is tiresome. Would you both concede that you are neither Lord Sesshoumaru,” a proud voice steeped with conceit interrupted. “I am he and your incessant bickering hurts my ears. This beauty wishes for me and rightly so she should.” Disgruntlement souring their expressions, they turned to find the polished white of the knight who had spoken with polite contempt. “I am who the moon princess beckons as she no doubt recognizes the privilege she has been given to share my company in this moment.”

 

Pure of imperfection, the smug knight stood clad in white armor detailed with ivory and with a long, intricate braid trailing down from his head to his lower back. A permanent sneer creased his handsome face as he looked down on his quieting contemporaries with profound satisfaction.

 

“Somehow, I would wager that you are no different than they are,” a fourth voice confided with an even tone unmatched in blatant indifference. The anxious men eyed each other nervously before turning their attention toward the knight behind them and near the soft beauty of the blooming plum tree. Weighted with heavy, navy armor and lost in a blue haze of smoke, a bald man stood casually. Burning orange at the tip, a long pipe balanced naturally in his mouth as he took the blade of a dagger across his scalp. With care, he dragged the edge along the contours of his skull, leaving neither a hair nor a nick in its path.

 

“In that case, are you next to proclaim that you are this Lord Sesshoumaru?”

 

“If I was Lord Sesshoumaru, I would feel no compulsion in revealing it to either of you. She knows who I am and there is no purpose in boasting for fools.”

 

“If that is the true,” the black knight remarked, “Then wouldn't that man back there be Lord Sesshoumaru and not you?” The four heads turned at once to examine the final knight with long, silver hair and a still tongue. Silence permeated the air as they poured over the illusion of golden armor that only they could see. A perturbed wrinkle found the demon's brow as the other knights sized him up, but he could see no reason in punishing conjurations for their crafted ignorance.

 

“Nah,” they scoffed in unison and instantly leveled harsh glares upon each other with their simultaneous agreement. Heated arguments broke a moment later as the men spewed elaborate proclamations of ownership over the stolen name and attempted to disprove their competitors.

 

“None of you are him!” Kagome yelled vehemently from the window with her arms akimbo in her wrath. Potentially caught in their deceit, the knights quieted to held breaths before her outburst. Satisfied that she had sufficiently procured their attention, the school girl's hand then shot up with a finger pointing unerringly toward the wordless, demon lord behind them all. “He's Lord Sesshoumaru.”

 

“Ha, she's pointing to me! I am victorious!” the red knight announced cheerfully with a triumphant laugh to follow. Another roar of argument churned amidst the knights with none listening to any words but those they spoke.

 

Disappearing from the window while cursing softly under her breath about obtuse and self-involved men, Kagome stormed down the hall and toward the entrance. A firm hand caught her wrist as she passed, jarring her from her determination to enlighten her unsuitable suitors.

 

“You cannot go outside, dear daughter,” the bamboo-cutter warned, his grip tightening with her look of defiance.

 

“Why not?”

 

“The magic has bound you within this house. Princess Kaguya does not leave her home here in such a way, thus you are barred from escaping. You must calm down for there is nothing else to be done.”

 

“Those men are a bunch of liars and someone needs to set them straight.”

 

“They are intended to be liars,” the elderly woman spoke up, stepping forward to gently break the hold the old man still held on the school girl. “Do you not remember this tale and what those cowardly knights accomplished?”

 

“They were given tasks to prove their love, weren't they?” Kagome asked, calming down as she thought back on the famous fairytale. “They had to seek priceless treasures that could only be found after a long journey and difficult battles. They had to prove they were worthy of the moon princess' hand in marriage.”

 

“Correct and do they?”

 

“No, they all failed. They were all intimidated by the seemingly impossible tasks and instead they resorted to making facsimiles of each treasure. Despite their efforts, they were all found out eventually.”

 

“Precisely, so how can you expect more of them? Deceivers in the story and therefore deceivers here.”

 

“So, what's going to happen?”

 

“I shall receive them and dictate their tasks, of course,” the bamboo-cutter replied with a smirk and stepped toward the door.

 

“Even though they'll fail, you'll still give them their tasks?”

 

“There might be one who will surprise us.”

 

“If there's a chance that that can happen,” she concluded quickly as the old man slipped on his sandals, “Can I ask you to give the silver-haired one a particular quest?”

 

“As long as it is in keeping with the tale.”

 

“It is. Don't worry.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The cacophony of their fierce debates and assertions having reduced to whispered grumbles and foul looks, the knights milled about the courtyard as they waited. With impatience and discontent brewing in the dull murmur surrounding him, Sesshoumaru remained unmoved and generally unimpressed. It was at the bottom of a long flight of stone steps that the scroll had deigned to deliver him from the previous tale. Seeing no other course more apparent, the youkai lord had climbed them only to arrive here and in the company of these absurd men. Then after deducing that he shared the same occupation as they, he knew that his role in this unknown fairytale would make itself evident soon enough.

 

His acute hearing serving him well, the demon lord listened absently to the muffled argument being waged within the mansion. Its context lost to thick, wood walls, he could hear it swiftly settle into a few agreeable words and end with the sharp click of a lock unlatching.

 

The heavy, double doors swung apart and out stepped a diminutive man, his body bent at the shoulders and his hands clasped comfortably behind his back. Disappointed sighs swelled in the air at the bamboo-cutter's appearance as the princess' brief emergence earlier had breathed in them hope for another glimpse. Creaking boards and creaking knees, the old man gradually made his way down the stairs, his aching joints voicing their perennially scorned complaints with every jarring step. Collectively spying a previously overlooked opportunity, the four capricious knights soon rushed forward to aid him down the remaining steps. Bickering at each other more than helping, the incensed bamboo-cutter swatted and cursed at the eager men who now impeded his way.

 

“I will throw the whole lot of you out if you do not go back where you were,” he growled, yanking hard on the ponytail of the red knight who had knelt down to pick him up in his boldness. “And I mean it this time!”

 

Scrambling back to their appointed posts in the courtyard, the rebuked knights looked away in their embarrassment as the elderly man leveled an irritated glare on each one of them. Satisfied that there was order once more, he continued his steady course until the clap of his sandals met the stone tiles of the yard. With a discerning eye, a hard lip and a tediously slow stride, the unhurried bamboo-cutter looked over each fidgeting man as he paced. However, his ambling gait ended when he came to the cool and imperceptible knight with long, silver hair. The scrutinizing gaze of the man pouring over him far longer than it had over the others, the tai youkai stared back with an even expression, sublimating his building annoyance behind the ease of his usual, indifferent facade.

 

“Hn,” the bamboo-cutter finally snorted after a long moment and then directed his sight over the rest. “Men of great repute and bravery, I stand before you humbled by the strength of your devotion to my daughter. Weeks have passed since your arrivals and in that time neither of you have sought food or sleep as you have waited patiently for the chance to meet her. Believe me when I say that she has not been blind to your many sacrifices for her hand in marriage. It is quite the opposite since it is in the light of your recent devotions that Princess Kaguya has decided to grant each of you tasks. Should you accomplish what she asks, then she has promised to not only hear you, but to accept your proposal.”

 

“Let us hear them, my soon to be father-in-law,” the white knight asked brashly, a smug smile playing on his lips. Joining boasts of confidence rolled through the group broken with accents of laughter. “What could our sheltered maiden possibly desire?”

 

“Do not treat these tasks frivolously,” he warned darkly as the men continued to make light of quests that could satisfy the sensibilities of a shy noblewoman. “She is not as simple as you believe and what she asks will truly test the mettle of your love.”

 

“Then reveal them so that they experience their deserved defeat swifter and so that I can begin preparations for welcoming my new bride into my home,” the navy knight remarked coolly, breathing curling wisps of smoke as he spoke.

 

“Very well,” the elderly man conceded. “Then I shall tell you first. The moon princess would ask you to bring the stone bowl from India which once belonged to Buddha.”

 

“Wh-What?!” he coughed loudly and abruptly, choking on the smoke escaping from his lungs. “She wants me to go all the way to India to do what?!”

 

“Next,” he continued, ignoring the disbelieving words of the sputtering, blue knight. His shifting gaze fell to the cocksure, white knight that was unabashedly delighting in his rival's bad luck. It would be at least a five year voyage and that was even if he was successful in acquiring such a sacred treasure. “Your quest will be to journey to Mount Horai rumored to exist somewhere in the Eastern Sea. There you are asked to climb to its summit and to pluck a branch from the tree of gold and silver that grows there.”

 

“Mount Horai?!” the knight exclaimed shrilly at the name of the mythical place. “How can I be asked to go to a place that is no more than legend? No one has ever found Mount Horai let alone climbed to its summit!”

 

“Then your love shall give you the courage to be the first.”

 

“At least India exists,” the navy knight spoke up solemnly, inwardly grateful for at least that.

 

“Third knight,” the bamboo-cutter went on, leaving the white knight to wallow alone in his ramblings. Ahead of him now stood the black knight who had chewed up his chicken bone in his nervousness even as he feigned his typically hard and vicious exterior. “It is asked that you search for the dragon that carries a stone radiating five colors upon its head. She desires the jewel and will welcome you should you return with it.”

 

“A dragon?” the knight asked anxiously, swallowing hard on what remained of his chicken bone as visions of giant, reptilian beasts breathing fire floated through his imagination.

 

“Yes and a big one.”

 

“What is mine?!” the red knight demanded enthusiastically, undaunted by the grim adventures given to the others.

 

“Yours is fairly simple. You must seek the swallow that carries a shell on its breast. The princess desires the shell and will reward you with her hand in marriage should you acquire it.”

 

“That's it?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Can I not get one more exciting?”

 

“I will exchange tasks with you if you desire a bit more stimulation than catching a bird,” the white knight offered smoothly. With his suggestion, the red knight was quickly swarmed by the other two men, each promising more treasure and land over the others if he would only trade with them instead.

 

“There will be no exchanging!” the elderly man decreed sternly. “You have your quests, so now be gone. If you are not expedient in your travels, another may return before you and know success despite your efforts.” One warning was all that was necessary and the four men hastily fled the courtyard to begin their ill-fated journeys, leaving the silver-haired knight alone with the bamboo-cutter.

 

“And my task?” Sesshoumaru asked evenly once they were alone, his arm crossed against his chest as he awaited the difficult pursuit that was no doubt soon to be uttered by the old man.

 

“She requested that this quest be specifically spared for you. I do not know why this one, but if it suits you, then you should be pleased.”

 

“Hn.”

 

“The moon princess would like you to travel to China and acquire a hide of firerat fur.”

 

“Hn,” he snorted again, thinking of the bright red clothes that his younger brother often wore. It was clever of her to set this task aside for him considering that Inuyasha must have acquired his coat and pants from some place and that he as a sibling might know specifically where. Unfortunately, the truth behind the mystery of those garments had never been revealed to either of them. Their father and the hanyou's mother had died before they could be asked.

 

“She believes in you,” the old man spoke up, drawing the youkai lord from his thoughts. “Otherwise, she would have never have asked something so specific for you.”

 

“I know.”

 

“Do not disappoint her.”

 

The bamboo-cutter turned his back and headed toward the castle before the tai youkai could reply. Perplexed and annoyed by the assumption that he could fail, Sesshoumaru walked toward the entrance of the courtyard which now proved an exit. Glimmering, golden eyes haunting in the gentle moonlight, he looked to the sky and more importantly to the North Star and to the approaching sunrise in the east. China was west and thus he would need to flee from the pink tinges of the creeping dawn. Wafting breezes swelling into whipping gusts, youki swirled at his feet as he prepared for the long flight.

 

“Hey, Do-Gu!” a voice called out, dissipating the demon lord's aura along with his concentration. Down at the base of the long flight of steps that he had climbed earlier, an ancient looking man and his produce cart waited on the rutted, dirt road. “It's been a while.”