InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 12 ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve

 

“Happy birthday!” Kagome said, giving Isamu a hug as he reentered the hut. He smiled at her and sat down, grabbing a couple of vegetable out of the steam-pot. “I have a present for you, hold on a second…”

 

Isamu started eating as he watched his mother digging around in the small wooden chest in the corner. Kiki, apparently having already had her breakfast, ran into the hut with Hitomi and placed a ring of flowers on his head.

 

“Happy birthday!” they both said, then ran giggling from the hut again. Kagome returned and sat down next to Isamu, pushing a small, silk-wrapped bundle into his hands.

 

“InuYasha's mother left that to him,” she said, smiling softly, “and he gave it to me. I think it's about time you put it to good use.” Isamu unwrapped the smooth silk and found a beautiful golden hair-comb, inlaid with tiny, precious stones. His eyes widened in shock. In the upper human classes, giving such a hair-comb as a gift was viewed as a proposal. “Okaa-san…”

 

“I know that you two don't want to get married until we're all safe,” Kagome said, her eyes suspiciously bright, “But when we're settled in the islands, I think that's the first thing we need to do.”

 

Isamu looked up and caught his mother's eyes. He nodded, smiling. “Arigato Gozaimasu, Okaa-san.”

 

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“Happy Birthday!” Yuki, Haruka and Kazuki yelled together as Isamu walked up to them. Kazuki stood up and handed him something.

 

“Here, we banded together to buy that,” he said. Isamu unwrapped the cloth to see a beautiful red-and-white painted rice bowl, with a matching sake cup inside and red chopsticks with white-painted detailing. Isamu grinned broadly.

 

“Red and white… are you trying to tell me something?” He asked Kazuki, who laughed aloud.

 

“I dunno… it's not like they're the traditional colors of a formal occasion, right?” he said mockingly. Isamu laughed as well, then pulled a small silk package out of his pocket.

 

“Actually, I know it's my birthday, but… I have a present for you, Haruka.” Yuki and Haruka both went “oooooooooo” under their breath. Isamu ignored them.

 

“Please accept this meager gift,” he said formally, bowing and handing the package to Haruka. She slowly unwrapped it, and nearly dropped it in shock when she saw the hair-comb. Yuki shrieked.

 

“Isamu!” she squealed. “Where did you get that? It's so beautiful!”

 

“It belonged to obaa-san,” Isamu said. “She left it to Otou-san, who gave it to Okaa-san, who gave it to me, who gave it to Haruka.”

 

“Let's put it in your hair!” Yuki proclaimed, gently taking the comb from Haruka, who was staring at it with a soft smile and looking as if she were about to cry. Yuki carefully piled Haruka's long hair on top of her head and secured it in place with the comb. It looked stunning. Isamu hugged her, and she hugged him back, passing on her unspoken acceptance.

 

“Pack it away securely,” Isamu whispered in her ear, “And when we get to safety, you can wear it again.”

 

Kazuki and Yuki both clapped quietly, Kazuki with a mocking grin, Yuki with tears in her eyes.

 

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“What's going on?” Mitsuko asked, a late riser. Kagome and Sango were standing at the entrance to Rin's hut, where the lady of the shed was also watching the four teenagers in the training field in the outskirts of the village. Kagome and Sango were both crying and hugging each other.

 

“Isamu proposed,” Rin said, jumping on the spot, clearly overcome with joy. “We'll have to have the wedding as soon as we find a new home. Oh, it's so lovely…”

 

“We're mother-in-law to each other's children!” Kagome said, giggling.

 

“Does that make us sisters-in-law or something?” Sango said, also giggling, and they burst into laughter, hugging each other again. The joyful hysteria was clearly too much for the mothers-in-law to be.

 

“I'll go congratulate them,” Rin said, running over to the field, followed by Sango. The various husbands had disappeared, presumably until the squealing stopped. Mitsuko made to follow them, but Kagome stopped her, wiping tears of joy from her eyes and yet suddenly serious.

 

“Mitsuko, I wanted to ask… You said you were clairvoyant,” she said quietly. “You nearly collapsed near the field yesterday. Did you see something?”

 

Mitsuko meant to lie, but she couldn't seem to say it. Something about lying to the miko felt like lying to your own mother. She shook her head and murmured, “I saw a sea of blood, burning in fire. I saw out paths headed towards the blood and fire. But I cannot tell if we must ford the red sea or go around it.”

 

There was no laughter in Kagome's face now. She was pale, and had pressed her lips together tightly. “It is all too easy to guess what that must mean,” she muttered, “But for now, all I can do is wait and have faith. We should be able to get away from here before the armies arrive in three weeks' time…”

 

“No,” Mitsuko whispered, now gripping Kagome's arm back. “No, the sea is not three weeks away. It is three days.”

 

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Kazuki sighed dejectedly. He flicked another leaf off of the bridge and into the water, watching it slide away on the current. Isamu and Haruka had been spending all their time together, not just the evenings, ever since the proposal. Though he wouldn't admit it, Kazuki was feeling a little lonely without his best friend to bedevil, and to make matters worse he still wasn't getting anywhere with the beautiful tigress staying at Isamu's.

 

“Problems, hentai-chan?” Yuki said in a friendly tone. “Mitsuko still rejecting you?”

 

“Yes,” Kazuki said, “so why can't I seem to stay away from her?”

 

“Awww, is Kazuki-chan in love?” Yuki crooned, causing Kazuki to glare at her.

 

“Yeah, like you could give me any helpful advice,” Kazuki grumbled. Yuki continued grinning infuriatingly, but he saw something behind her eyes flinch. He sighed. “Gomen.”

 

“You should be nice to me,” Yuki said huffily. “And here I was about to give you some helpful advice on how to stop your cheeks being turned into sushi.”

 

“Just can't help playing matchmaker, can you?” Kazuki complained loudly, but relented and said, “Fine, what do I need to do?”

 

“What you should stop doing,” Yuki said, unable to stop herself telling him what to do, “Is groping her. Leave the usual targets alone. Hold her hands instead. If you're sitting next to her, put your arm around her shoulders- not, may I add, far enough around to go for her chest. Okay? Don't grope now and maybe she'll let you later. I mean, you could ask Otou-san how he got Okaa-san to marry him despite the perversion, but he'll probably say the same.”

 

“Yeah, yeah…” Kazuki said, still sounding dejected. Suddenly he yelped and smashed his hand against his neck. Something tiny and flat peeled away from his hand.

 

“Is that… Myoga-jii-san?” Yuki asked, staring at the small figure. It puffed out and jumped onto her outstretched hand.

 

“Indeed,” the little flea said. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Yuki-sama. I must speak to InuYasha-sama and the others.”

 

“You take the flea to the village, I'll fetch Isamu and ane-ue,” Kazuki said, running into the forest.

 

“Do you have news?” Yuki asked, and Myoga nodded.

 

“Both good and bad,” The old flea replied. “We must hurry.”

 

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SesshoMaru narrowed his eyes. He had been watching Kazeko's village when the man had ridden up. To be honest, he had partially been hoping for a chance to speak with Kazeko again. It had been oddly comforting, his short conversations with the human girl, a few minutes where he felt peaceful, something that was increasingly rare. Her presence was so comforting that he hadn't even noticed her approach. He took out the feather, twirling it between his fingers once more, remembering one who had brought him the same peace at a time when he hadn't wanted it. But he'd needed it. And he'd ignored that fact until it was too late.

 

I would not make the same mistake again, he thought, watching the hut. And there was the danger.

 

Yamazaki was here, three weeks before he should have been. Which meant his army could be nearby. How did they get here so fast?

 

If Yamazaki was here, the Kazeko was only safe so long as the villagers kept their mouths shut about him, and he couldn't count on that. But he had to know how close the army was.

 

He ran from the village, moving south, nose searching for the scent of masses of men and horses and metal. Once he knew where the army was, he could come back to watch over Kazeko. If her father knew that she'd betrayed him, he'd kill her.

 

And I swore that I would not let that happen again, he thought, hoping that he would not be too late once more.

 

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“What's going on, Myoga-jiji?” Inuyasha asked. “It took you three weeks to search the northern islands?”

 

“The largest ones are only inhabited along the coastline, InuYasha-sama,” Myoga said. “If you slipped past these fishing villages undetected, you could easily hide in the centre of the island.”

 

“Then that's where we're headed,” Miroku said. “We should find a way to warn the other youkai.”

 

“That is not all, InuYasha-sama,” Myoga said. “Yamazaki rode night and day to get to his village early. And he has drafted in decommissioned armies from the west. While the main army is still three weeks away, the newer one is less than three days away!”

 

“Shit!” Isamu yelled. “We have to move, soon!” Kagome went white and clutched at her stomach. InuYasha put his arms around her, trying to soothe her.

 

“Then we pack,” Sango said, “Now. Change into fighting gear and pack food and anything that we just can't leave behind. We leave as soon as possible.”

 

“At dawn,” Miroku said. “They're three days away, let's get some sleep before we run. Let the children sleep here one last night.”

 

“Agreed,” Kohaku said. “Come on, Rin.”

 

Kagome dropped to her knees next to Kiki, who was asleep. She grabbed a large sheet of cloth and began packing medicines, herbs and a few books into it. InuYasha was preparing the food supplies. Mitsuko was filling a cooking pot with white rice to be carried when suddenly she dropped to her knees, clutching at her head.

 

“Mitsuko?!” Kagome cried, running over and grabbing the girl's hands. Suddenly, she could see the vision too.

 

A sea. A red sea. Red because it was not water, but blood. Blood that burned. And there were faces in the fire, howling, screaming…

 

One was clear, one was distinct. A girl was screaming, collapsing into fire. A girl…

 

“KAZEKO!” Mitsuko yelled, running from the hut, towards the south… where the armies were…

 

“MITSUKO!” Kazuki hollered, running after her, already wearing his exterminator uniform. Kagome stayed kneeling where she was. Staring at the wall as though she could see the girl's face in the wood- a familiar face.

 

“Kagome? Kagome!” Inuyasha said, kneeling next to her. Kagome turned to look at him.

 

“Kazeko?” she said quietly. “Was that her? Because… it looked like…”

 

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Just in case the reference to the colors of Isamu's bowl are beyond anybody, Red and White are considered lucky colors in Japan and are used abundantly at weddings. I don't know if they were considered just as lucky in the sixteenth century, but since I've found no evidence to the contrary then I'm going with it.

 

And to Milenalupin- thanks for the pointers! Seriously, I've never received any formal education in Japanese, just what I've picked up from the manga and the web, so I'm glad for the nit-picking. I felt that I wanted Kazuki to use more formal speech than everyone else (I'm not sure why, it just felt right), but all I could find oe respectful addresses was a list of terms like Chichi in reference to father, Haha in reference to mother, so on. Because SesshoMaru suffixes the Chichi” with “-ue” in reference to his father, and Kohaku's “Ane-ue” is similar, I worked on the basis of adding “-ue” to these words when using them in reference to your own relatives (I figured it was only your own because Myoga also occasionally uses “Chichi” in reference to InuPapa, but adds “-gimi” instead of “-ue). I think I'll stick to this when he's talking about his older sisters or parents, but I will switch to adding “-chan” to Imoto and Ototo instead. I was having the others use variations on “Onee” and “nii” in reference to their siblings, with the “chan” or “san” suffixes in reference to status because they're less formal, but I'm not too sure if that's how it works.

Like I said, I have no formal education in Japanese (I'm working off of manga, my own scanty knowledge and translation sites) so if anyone else notices any serious errors in the language in use, please let me know. I'm using a bit more Japanese than usual for this fic because I'm hoping that putting what I know in context will help me learn. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

 

InuYasha is the property of Takahashi Rumiko-Sensei, and I claim no ownership of any of it. All couples not involving original characters will be strictly canon. Aside from Haruka, Yuki and Kazuki, I made up all of the kids, though since birthdates other than Kazuki's were never really stated in the manga, nor names, I've made these up as well. This fanfic will make little sense if you have not read the entire manga, and I'm afraid that to read the last twenty or so volumes you will have to (at the time of writing) venture into the internet, but I strongly suggest that you do buy the Tankoban volumes for yourself, so that Takahashi-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with her imagination. Anyway, hope you enjoy the fic. ^_-