InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Mysterious Little Visitor ❯ Scroll Twelve: On That Day ( Chapter 12 )

A/N: Wow! Long time, I know! I've been super busy with school and my other fics. (Can we all say "writer's block sucks"?) Anyway, I finally got my bearings and I am determined to finish this fanfic before I get back to "On a Leash" and "Shikon High"-they're next on my hit list. *grin* Following are "Orphan and the Conman" and "On Vacation" I believe. "Codename: HANYOU" is going to be last, and if-what do I mean, 'if'? When-I start up another fic, it'll go up with this.

Quick note: *starts up 'Happy Birthday' song* "THE MYSTERIOUS LITTLE VISITOR" IS 1 YEAR OLD! Yay! (Could there be a sequel and prequel in mind? *kukuku*)

Scroll Twelve: On That Day

The group was seated on the cooling ground of the Mount Fire Soul cavern. Sango sat to the side, resting her back against a transformed Kirara; the giant fire cat continued to nuzzle the young demon slayer and wrap her tails around her as if she were one of her injured kittens. In a way she was, having suffered quite a few bruises. Sango attempted to mask the pain with a neutral face, but the ache would sometimes get the better of her, and she would nestle deep into Kirara's fur.

Not far off, seated with staff cradled to his shoulder-Shippo perched not far above it--was Miroku, observing Inu-Yasha who sat across the way. The monk wordlessly contemplated on the tale thus far and the condition of his half-demon friend, both mentally and physically.

Since bringing the injured dragon to their current encampment towards the mouth of the cave, and allowing Kagome to swathe his wounds, the hanyou had said very little. Not surprising, to say the least. Due to the well-known brooding nature of the dog-demon, it was a regular occurrence and nothing out of the ordinary; however, the circumstances of their present situation did make it curious as to what might've been passing between those silver dog-ears.

Inu-Yasha merely sat with his backside slouched against the rugged grotto wall-the same one in which he'd been violently grated against only half an hour or so ago-eyes shifting from opened to closed ever so often, his countenance altering with each passing cogitation. No doubt he was pondering deeply about his acclaimed, future child Little Inu, named proudly after him; about what things were to come, of the warning the younger dog-demon had given him about staying sentinel of Kagome's life, of his own reactions in his transformed state towards the girl….

He could have slain her right then and there…but something had kept his demon blood in check.

What stopped me…? Inu-Yasha asked him self, lifting his molten peering up to the girl who finished as the last link of the band's oval seating arrangement, feeling his answer was beyond what he could see yet could be satisfied by her. He could still, although incredibly vague, remember some of the things he saw, and remember some of the bereavement-filled lusts he'd felt. Yet, despite the strong hold of his demonic blood at that time, he could not bring his claws to harm Kagome's sensitive flesh. He shouldn't have cared. What was it…?

"You poor thing," Kagome was saying, pouring antiseptic on some white gauze. She lifted the wadded cloth to about chest level to the battered creature before her. "Shiokki, I need you to take off your haori and undershirt."

With a quiet nod, Shiokki un-tucked his black cloak from their matching pants-traces of intricate gold ivy crossing from his left shoulder to his right hip-and laid them on the cave floor, the camel undershirt soon following. His chest was ripped and bleeding in numerous places that one blow could not be distinguished from another. Skin dangled some of the lacerations, and involuntarily the proud dragon-boy winced and hissed while Kagome dressed his wounds. "I thank you," he ground out, teeth scraping together.

"It's really nothing," she replied, refolding the cloth so the bloodier side was now to the middle. Reapplying the antiseptic, the girl peered up at him with wide cobalt orbs; from the corner of her eye she had seen the baffled-relieved look that had crossed his visage.

Shiokki smiled toothily, bright fangs flashing in the dim torchlight; the crimson hue of the smoke that had once been filtering in and out of the grotto had long since stopped. "You are a lot like her," he murmured.

"Jumiyo…?" she asked quietly in return, keeping her gaze averted.

A sad smile touched the boy's face as he gradually dropped his stare to his lap. "Yes…Jumiyo. I loved her very much. You are both a lot like, Lady."

"I'm Kagome," she started, reaching for some bandages from her pack, which the fox-child had brought over in much haste earlier. Pointing to each individual, "That's Inu-Yasha, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, Shippo, and Little Inu."

Upon hearing his name, Little Inu, who had been watching them with static gold eyes from the cave ledge, got to his feet and made his way to the rest of the company. "Shiokki, I know you and Jumiyo were found out about your affair but…" he promptly sat down at Kagome's side, locking gazes with the dragon when he glanced up, "what happened that day? What happened to the herbs?"

Shiokki said nothing for a while. He kept his ruby eyes straight ahead, seeing something no one else but he was able to see. His black-slit pupils dilated and contracted, his breathing become haggard and rapid.

"Shiokki?!" Kagome gasped, reaching out to his shoulders.

"Shiokki?!" Jumiyo screamed as the floor beneath them trembled before finally giving way to a large fissure to their right. The basket of wild berries in her hands fumbled from her grasp and plummeted into the peerless hole. She snatched his haori to steady herself. "They've come to destroy the herbs!"

A deep laughing rocked the already unstable grotto they were in. "Shiokki, did you complete your job?" it inquired from all around.

The dragon-warrior shrunk back slightly. "I…I didn't do what you asked me to do." He jerked his gaze to the tremulous floor. "I can't hurt her."

"Shiokki…" she whispered while bits of rock and dust shivered from the walls and ceiling in a ghastly haze about them.

He refused to look behind him to see her betrayed visage. It would shred whatever was left of his heart and pride. "I could never hurt her, because I love her!" Snapping his fiery eyes up, he grasped onto the hilts of each of the kodachis that hung at both sides. "I'll fight you to protect both her and the Hakushinmu herbs!"

"Only a fool fights for love!" the voice scolded, the violently quavering more.

"I'd rather be fool than a murderous betrayer!" He drew the sleek blades from their sheaths so the sound of the two diverging rang piercingly through the air. Giving a flick of his wrists, the blades pointed outward, at the ready, he whipped his head around to Jumiyo. "Go to the Chamber of Spirits! Raise a shield or something, just go!"

A soft look on her face made his innards melt, as they had the first time they'd met. "Yes, I will." Hiking up her kimono, she began running down the center path; however she stopped at the junction to murmur, "I knew it all along." Then, she disappeared.

"Shiokki? Shiokki?" Kagome was frantically repeating, shaking his shoulders gently.

Regaining his wits, and his breath, the boy nodded, blinking hastily. "Those are just very painful memories. Well, my owner came to see if I'd done as I was ordered to do. Obviously I did not, and he was trying to incinerate all the fields that day." He closed his ruby-red orbs, feeling the licking tongues of flame from yesteryear. "I was able to stop him, but he…he'd managed to send something into the Chamber of Spirits where the Hakushinmu herbs and Jumiyo were. He killed her." Gradually, his eyelids lifted as his orbs began to glisten. "I loved her so much, and I couldn't protect her. In that moment of weakness, he managed to use that awful binding spell of his regain his control of me." He glimpsed to Inu-Yasha. "I am sorry I had to fight you."

Inu-Yasha's face remained fairly void of any remark to Shiokki's words. He only nodded slightly. Embracing Tetsusaiga closer he muttered, "Wasn't your fault."

Grateful, Shiokki bobbed his cranium, allowing the long tangles of onyx to lap his face. "I had no choice; he would've destroyed the mountain, which would have destroyed the pure waters to the west."

"What waters?" inquired Shippo with a fox's true curious nature. "I didn't see any water."

Turning his attention to the young fox, "Then you must have come through the forest then, correct?"

"Well, yeah…." Scrunching up his visage, the little boy thought. "But we didn't see the water even when were going on that narrow mountain path."

"It was hard to see," Little Inu put in, pondering also with his arms crossed firmly over his chest. "There was all that red smoke that we could barely see each other when we got around the back of Fire Soul."

"Red smoke?" echoed Shiokki, his lips turned in slightly bemused smile. "I don't recall there being any. I might've been a barrier of sorts instituted by Jumiyo. She was very powerful. She could have put the smoke there so no one would pilfer the sacred water."

Miroku joggled his noggin thoughtfully. "From what you've told us of her, it sounds like a high possibility. However, I wish to know what makes these waters so important that they would have such extreme security measures."

"It is from these waters that the Hakushimu herbs are irrigated with from when they were seeds. It is what gives them such potency.

"Regardless," he ran his clawed fingers through his messy locks, "you have need of the herbs. Tell me, why?"

Straightening himself up proudly, Little Inu unfolded his arms. "I need them to heal my father. He protects my family from all the demons and other evils that come after us. You see, he was poisoned. If I don't get the Hakushinmu herbs back to him in time, he'll die in about three weeks." The young hanyou kept his mouth shut as he awaited Shiokki's answer. He shifted uncomfortably at the dragon's scrutinizing, intense stare. Sliding his hand within the chest compartment of his haori, the boy fiddled with the blue pouch anxiously.

Slowly, the vigor lessened from his pools of blaze. "You are the youngest of your pack, aren't you?"

Little Inu nodded. "Yes."

"Why were you sent? Why not one of the older children? Most would consider a half-demon pup like you far from weaned of his parents' protection."

Dragging in a long breath, he answered calmly once more. "I chose to go. My eldest siblings are twelve springs old. I am only seven summers. My other siblings are not much older than me. Still, they are all very strong…they," the strain of admittance could be seen lining his countenance thickly, "are more trained than I. That is why they had to be able to defend our home. My father and mother have always taught me that sometimes you have to summon the strength inside you don't know you have to face a battle you don't know anything about."

"Your parents are correct." Shiokki glanced over at Inu-Yasha and Kagome curiously, before gradually getting to his feet.

"Shiokki, you shouldn't stand," the girl-from-the-future protested, grasping onto his arm.

Gently, he removed her hands. "I am fine now. Thank you, Lady Kagome. Come," he instructed, carefully walking as his stride began to grow stronger. "I will lead you to the Chamber of Spirits. We could also help that friend of yours, the girl in the black, Sango, when we get there." With that, Shiokki started off to the back of their cave, hair fanning out behind him as a breeze quietly whipped in.

Scrambling to his own bare-soled feet, Little Inu trotted after him. Miroku and Kirara helped Sango as they followed suit, with Shippo using the monk as free transportation. Kagome began to follow also, when she noticed her hanyou hadn't moved.

"Come on, Inu-Yasha." She peered at his inert form, the pattering of the others' feet echoing back. "Let's go." She waited for a moment; he still hadn't moved spare his ears which pivoted around repetitively. His hoary hair seemed to stand on end, yet his face remained almost impassive. "Inu-Yasha?" She knelt fore him, the sounds of their friends steadily dieing away. "Are you alright?"

A moment passed, and he still made no movement and retained no reaction. After another moment, he rose. His expression was a mishmash of emotions that Kagome didn't know where to begin the unraveling to figure out what was bouncing around his mind. "I have a feeling that there's something funny going on here."

The girl got up also, more than a little perplexed. "Like what?"

"I can't quite put a finger on it, but there something here. Something we," his slotted eyes darted around the chamber, "didn't notice." He stayed silent for a while, prior to coming to some decision. "I can still hear them…. Stay close to me, Kagome." He strode ahead a few steps before stopping to gaze softly at her prone form, "I don't want to lose you."

Nodding, she obliging came up beside him.

Then they too followed the dimly lit, firelight path to the Chamber of Spirits, leaving a bloodied grotto of confusion behind.

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Gomen! I know I took so long! And I give you this short chapter, but bear with me! Those of you who have been reading "On a Leash" heard the announcement: I'm going to try and finish this story before I go back to my others. In addition, to you want me to make the last chapters of the story longer (fewer chapters), or I can write short chapters like this one that would be out more frequently (but more chapters); either way, the story will get finished. Please review guys! You are all so good at that, and you've made "On a Leash" the best fic I've written thus far, but I couldn't forget this one. This was my first Inu-fic and it's still very dear to me.

Little Inu: Hey! Thanks for always reading, guys! But, as much as I know you all love me, you can't use me. Sorry.

*hugs him* He's my little dog-demon. ^^ But you can talk to him if you want. Ok?

Little Inu: Answering questions is fun! *big little kid grin, with big gold eyes* Come on, aren't I more adorable than Shippo? *pleading look, bottom lip quivering, puppy-dog eyes, ears drooping slightly*

Let me know guys!

Ja ne,

~Moonlight Shadow