InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Yokai No Kokoro (Heart of A Demon) ❯ Tomorrow ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9: Tomorrow

{Is it any wonder why I'm scared? If I was a little younger, would I care? Feeling like the walls are growing stronger, I don't know if this cage can hold me any longer… You never dreamed you'd have to live your life so guarded-cause they'll find a way to make you feel discarded. I'm not afraid of tomorrow-I'm only scared of myself. Feels like my insides are on fire, and I'm looking through the eyes of someone else… I never thought they'd want me to go even faster, never thought I took my foot off the gas; everybody loves to be in on the pressure, but I know they're all waiting for the crash… Things have changed; you've become a complication-can't make it through another days' humiliation! … Is it any wonder why the answer keeps me petrified, is it any wonder why I'm scared?} SR-71 - Tomorrow

Inu Yasha slowly entered the hut. Inside, he saw that Kyoko was laying on a futon, asleep and Kagome and Shippo next to her.

"Inu Yasha, Kyoko and I have come to a decision."

"And what would that be?"

"We're going to allow Kyoko to stay with us until she can find clues as to where Sesshoumaru may be."

"WHAT?"

Ignoring Inu Yasha, Kagome continued, "I think that we should be able to leave tomorrow. That is, your wound is healed by now, isn't it?"

"I'm fine. However, why is it that you believe that you can just up and invite someone else to come along with us?"

Shippo twitched his tail, but otherwise showed no emotion as he added his own opinion, "I don't mind her. She is certainly kinder to me than you are, Inu Yasha."

Inu Yasha's face reddened with anger. "Don't you see this? For all we know she could be some assassin sent by Sesshoumaru or Naraku! It doesn't matter why she is here, I don't trust her!"

"You don't trust only because she likes your brother, Inu Yasha. You have not been able to look past that since she first asked you of his whereabouts."

Kyoko sat upright. She was awoken by the argument. She looked to the floor, not willing to look at Inu Yasha's angry face. "I mean you no harm, Inu Yasha. Can you not understand that?" Her bangs shadowed her face as she recalled that this had not been the first time that her integrity had been met with such opposition. She had tried to settle in a human village once before, but the villagers had sent her away. She had once tried to help a wandering group of samurai, lost in a forest, by redirecting them to a safer area-they tried to kill her for her aid. [No one seems to trust me anymore… Miroku-sama and Satoru-san… they trust me… This girl, Kagome, she seems to trust me… but… Sesshoumaru… he couldn't even tell me where we were going; he left without so much as a 'goodbye'…]

Inu Yasha gazed over at Kyoko. He was shocked as he saw a single tear roll down her cheek. "Fine, you can stay. But… the first time you piss me off-you go."

"Arigato."

[This is an alliance I want no part in… even if Kagome seems to be able to trust her; even if she was raised with Miroku… she's still an outsider. What would prevent her from killing any of us? What would prevent her from trying to steal my Tetsusaiga? No matter how trustworthy she seems… I've been stabbed in the back too many times by people I have trusted, people I had come to love… like Kikyo… It wasn't really her fault, she was tricked… but, still…]

Kagome grabbed Inu Yasha's arm and dragged him out of the hut. "Can't you just give her a chance?"

"Why should I?"

"So far, every one of us-you, me, Miroku, and Shippo-have come to trust one another despite the fact that we were nearly enemies when we had first met. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it seems that she's going through a rough time right now. She's alone in the world; she may not show it that much, but loneliness is the most painful thing in the world for her. Her fiancé disappeared after staying with her for over three years, then she was alone, searching for him until recently. Then when she met Sesshoumaru, she thought that maybe her life would get back on track, back to being happy again. However, when he left to fight us, it was like a bad case of déjà vu."

"Just because someone has had their own trust betrayed, doesn't mean that they are trustworthy."

"Inu Yasha, do you realize that you have been in a similar position before?"

---------Two days later---------

Kyoko sighed happily as she saw the next village shortly ahead. It had only been a short time that she had traveled with this unlikely group, but already it seemed as though she had done so for a lifetime. They had decided to head west, back towards the direction that Kyoko had come from, in hopes that she may be able to find clues of Sesshoumaru's whereabouts while they searched for the shards of the Shikon no Tama.

Kyoko stood at the edge of the forest, she took in the scents of the area. She caught the scent of blood, human blood, heavy on the wind. Her memory reminded her that this was near the village that she had bought her kimono from-where Shibata's inn stood near the northern edge of the village. "Inu Yasha, come quick!" Kyoko yelled as she ran to the village.

Inu Yasha followed her. He had come to somewhat trust her, but not too well. He knew by now that she held no ill regards towards humans by now. There was still a mild tension between the two, but Inu Yasha attributed it to the fact that Kyoko did not wish to anger him by being too friendly.

Kyoko rushed into the village, her senses nearly overwhelmed by the scent of blood. Everywhere she looked, she saw the dead bodies of the villagers. She rushed to the house that belonged to the old tailor, fearing that the kind old man had been attacked as well. She rushed into the house to find the little boy, Ken, crying. Kyoko knelt next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder when he saw her. "What happened?"

The boy sniffed a few times, his face was red and puffy from his tears. "Grandpa… That man who came… he hurt Grandpa…"

"What man came? Is your grandpa alright?"

The little boy shrugged. "He got hurt real bad… Mother is in his room, helping him, but he got hurt really bad…"

"What man came? What was he?"

"I don't know… he was a scary man, asking for some 'Shikon no Kakera'… Grandpa didn't have any, so the scary man stabbed him with something…" The little boy shuddered when he heard the front door of their house open again.

Kyoko glanced back to see who it was. Inu Yasha strolled inside the house looking around. "What happened, Kyoko? These people here are about the only ones that survived. There were some geishas in an inn that seem to be fine, but everyone else that was here is dead."

Kyoko nodded. "Ken-san, I need to talk with your grandfather, where is he?"

The little boy pointed to a closed door at the end of a hallway.

Kyoko stood and headed towards the door. She stopped just before knocking when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Inu Yasha?"

"Are you sure about all of this? That old man may or may not be alive…"

"I don't care, the boy said that his mother was in there. She may be able to tell us more about what actually happened."

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The young fighter looked over the battlefield. In his heart there were mixed emotions. He kept feeling that he was in the wrong place, he also felt ready to begin this battle, to end the lives of all that dared oppose his army. He hated that he could not remember anything before three years ago. He hated to fight, but loved the feeling of relief he got when he felled his enemies. He ran his hand through his thick coffee-brown, shoulder-length hair. He raised his sword and look at the reflection of his deep, dark, Prussian blue eyes. [Who am I really? There must be more to me… I have to have a family, wife, kids-something like that-just like everyone else… But… why is it that I feel so at home on the battlefield? And… why do I still have blackouts? It was just last night that I had another one. I don't know what happens, I just know that every once in a while I disappear from the group, and lose a few hours… Last night when I came back, I was covered in blood… I guess that I shouldn't worry too much about it. I do it all the time and come back just fine… but… I wish I knew what happened…]

He let out a battle cry as he began the assault on the enemy. One by one, he felled his opponents, as if he was trying to fill the void, trying to fix his broken memory. It was ever since he had been rescued by an old man from certain death three and a half years before that he had begun his life anew. He became a soldier for hire, joining group of men to help them fight their battles. He had no respect for his own life when he fought. He swung his sword wildly, slashing through his opponents, not caring whether or not one of them would ever do the same to him. He ran through the enemy's men, swinging his sword until his arms no longer held the strength to fight. He stopped and dropped his sword, awaiting the death that typically was swift to a man not holding a weapon. He collapsed on the bloody ground, but was not killed. Had fate been kind or cruel to allow him to live another day?

His comrades rushed to him; the battle was over and it was to him that they owed their lives. He was a strong and swift death for their opponents no matter where they fought; they all owed to him their lives from one occasion or another. They picked him up, despite their own injuries, and carried him back to their camp, to safety.

One of the men carrying him looked at him, covered in his enemies' blood, but none of his own. "It's not right, the way he is. No man should be able to fight that way. He can kill more men in one battle than most men kill in their entire lifetimes. What's more, he did so without receiving so much as a cut or bruise. It's just not right."

"Does it really matter whether or not it's right? He wins the fights, and he's saved our lives several times over. He's a hero in my eyes, and that's all that matters to me."

"Yes, but a hero with no past nor memory. All he was able to remember was his name. And those blackouts he has, have you seen him? His eyes turn all red and he wanders off. I think maybe he's a demon… maybe something worse."

"Worse than a demon? You mean my wife, right?" Another of the men added in jokingly.

The men's' laughter followed as they shot jokes back and forth at one another as they began to mend their wounds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ < p>Kyoko sat in the cherry tree in the garden at the inn. She looked over the remains of the village, trying to figure out what had happened. Suddenly, her memory brought back to her how she had met Satoru.

----Flashback----

Kyoko had been trying to find a new home for some time. She and her younger, adopted brother traveled the area. The travels they had served two purposes: to help Kyoko find a new home and to teach the young Miroku how to live on his own. Since his father had died, he had decided that he would avenge the curse that had placed upon the family by hunting down the yokai that had cursed his grandfather.

They had just arrived over a mountain slightly north of the Western territory when Kyoko smelled blood on the air. She held Miroku on her back as she dashed into the village. All of the people had been slaughtered, save one. The young man was a few years older than Kyoko actually was. She found him hiding in an old shack at the edge of the village. He was crying, covered in blood when she found him. She assumed that he had witnessed the entire attack that had killed the rest of the village and was in total shock. She asked him several times what had happened to the village, but he told her that he could not remember what happened.

She decided not to pry into his memory too much as she buried the dead in the village. She found an abandoned mansion that she had overlooked on the mountain when she had rushed down it. She cleaned the mansion and settled in it. She slowly helped the young man to learn to live without his friends and neighbors. She tried asking him about the people, but the experience of witnessing their death had apparently been more than his mind could handle. He forgot all of the memories of the people of the village. He wandered out of the mansion occasionally, but she did not bother him. She saw that everyone needed time alone, specifically when they have lived through such a traumatic experience.

She taught Miroku how to live on his own as they lived together in the house, the three of them. Every so often, they would return to Miroku's home and visit his father's best friend, a monk called Mushin. Kyoko cared very little for Mushin's manners, and several times left Satoru back at their home to care for things. Sometimes when they returned, he would have just returned himself, from a place that he never told Kyoko of. The two quickly fell for each other-living in the same home has that tendency on strangers.

---End Sequence---

Kyoko wandered out of the gardens, those same gardens that she had been in little over ten days prior, on the verge of death. She did not much like the area anyways, now that Shibata had been slain, the two geishas that took over the inn got rid of all the incense and other smells that masked the scent of blood in the dining room. She could no longer stand to smell the blood that had soaked into the wooden floors of the inn. Yokai blood was all that she could smell there, despite the freshness of the blood of all of the humans that had been killed recently. She wandered the streets of the village, trying to find a familiar smell. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she strained herself to pick up that one scent, she could not find it. She could not smell anything aside from the blood and the death in the area. [The boy's mother said she was unable to see anything… The geishas told me that they were only able to see a shadowy figure… But the boy… he said it was a man… The old tailor, he was still asleep when I spoke with them… at least he survived…]

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Inu Yasha sighed as he pushed the shovel into the ground for about the hundredth time. He glanced over at Miroku as he wiped his brow. "You know, I think that if we ever give up on fighting rogue demons, we should become professional graves diggers. We could even go as far as having mass discounts. Half off if it's the entire village. Feh… I'm so tired of all of this. It didn't used to be this way. When I was a kid, it was safe to live in a village… But now… now entire villages have been wiped out in seconds…"

"It is proof of the evil of the Shikon no Tama. Men's greed leads them to death like this. Occasionally, however, innocent men and women become involved. It is a true pity."

"Speaking of the Shikon no Tama, why is it that Kyoko carries shards? Kagome told me that she doesn't use them, she just holds them, sorta like what we do."

"I think that a while back she no longer wanted to be yokai. But, I'm not sure if that is still her purpose."

"Feh, and to think that I nearly died to obtain the Shikon no Tama years ago-to become a yokai. But, Kyoko wanted to give that up… That is truly amazing."

"Yes, well, the person who led her to wanting to do that is/was questionable, though… I never really liked him; he hated me."

Kyoko ran to Inu Yasha. "There has been a battle just south of here! Let's go to see if we can find any clues about what happened here."

Inu Yasha and Miroku nodded. They dropped the shovels in their hands as they followed Kyoko. Inu Yasha pushed his strength a little and was able to catch up to Kyoko. "How far is it?"

"Not too far; just over this hillside. I was at the edge of the village earlier when the wind shifted. I caught the smell of the blood from there. Perhaps if we are lucky, there will be people alive to tell us what had happened."

"Hai."

Kyoko stopped at the edge of the battlefield. She looked over the scattered corpses, trying to find at least one survivor; there were none. [This… these men must have died so brutally… what type of fighters were they up against? Humans certainly wouldn't fight yokai like that… would they?] Kyoko concentrated to pick up the scent of yokai on the air; there was none to be found. She walked over the corpses, hoping that there would be a sign somewhere.

Finally, Kyoko tripped on a sword. She looked down in shock as she saw the familiar hilt that she herself had carved from the bones of a large oni. She lifted the blade and sniffed it, to assure herself of what it was. This was the sword that she had given to Satoru when they announced that they had planned to marry. The blade had been made from one of her own fangs, the hilt from an oni's bones, and the scabbard, wherever it happened to be, was made from a branch from the tree under which Kyoko's mother was buried. "M-Miroku-sama, look! This… this is Satoru's…"

Miroku looked the sword over quickly and saw that it was no imitation. [Damn… and just when it was that I thought that I would never have to hear that name again… This is something that she doesn't need to deal with right now.]

Inu Yasha glanced over at the sword. "If that is what's-his-name's sword, then where is he?"

"He's not here, I've already looked among the bodies… which most likely means that he has been killed and another man had taken fancy to this sword."

Inu Yasha rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Who is this Satoru, anyway, Kyoko?"

Miroku shook his head, as though telling Inu Yasha not to persist. "I'll explain later."

Kyoko smiled. "Arigato, Miroku-sama." She held the sword close to herself and turned around. "I'm going back to the village now……"

Miroku placed his hand on Inu Yasha's shoulder, preventing him from following. "We'll be along shortly."

Kyoko waved her hand in the air as she ran back to the village. Miroku did not need to see her face to know that she was crying. He knew how important Satoru had been to her, and when he disappeared, it was more than what she could handle. "Inu Yasha, she's gonna need some time alone. Asking her a bunch of questions won't help matters. Okay?"

"Whatever. So, who was this Satoru guy, anyway?"

Miroku watched and as soon as he could tell that Kyoko was out of earshot, he answered. "He was this guy that we found in a village that had been massacred, much like the one we came upon today. Kyoko felt pity on him because he had been left alone in the world, which was much similar to how she viewed herself. Anyway, it was shortly outside of this village that Kyoko found an abandoned mansion. She cleaned the place up and we lived there for a while. After some time, Kyoko and Satoru started to fall in love with each other. Kyoko didn't much like that I disliked Satoru, but she didn't get angry with me over it, either. She told me that it was my opinion and that I had my right to it, so long as I didn't offend him.

"But more to the point, there was something different about Satoru. Kyoko never noticed it, but he seemed to disappear about once a month for a night, for no apparent reason. I sensed evil within his spirit most strongly at those times, and, when I questioned him, he would be unable to give a reply. So, I followed him once. This time he took three days leave. I left a note for Kyoko saying that I had gone to see Mushin and that she shouldn't worry over me. I followed him all the way to this village full of people. When he went into the village, everyone there greeted him as a neighbor, returning from an adventure. After visiting with the people for a short while, he went into a house. I watched what happened inside of this house and discovered Satoru's secret. He had a wife and three sons. He knew them perfectly well and he had a home in that village. I returned to our home immediately so as not to raise suspicion. When he returned, I asked him about his journey, he played it off as though he knew not of what I spoke. I then asked a more intense question, 'How're the wife and kids?' He got spooked when I asked that. He knew that I knew."

"So, he had a wife and children when he met Kyoko? What did she say when she found out?"

"She didn't find out. I told Satoru that he had to be the one to tell her. However, he didn't. Next time when he disappeared, he came back with news that the village, the one that his family lived in, had been massacred. He told Kyoko that he had friends in that village and that was why he had become so sad about it. But, if you ask me, I think that it was no accident that the village was massacred."

"Did you tell Kyoko?"

"I never had the chance. It didn't make any sense to anyhow. Besides, it seemed to me that they sincerely loved each other, and I couldn't break her heart with something that wouldn't matter anymore."

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Kyoko sat in front of the inn, clutching Satoru's sword. She leaned back on one of the outer walls and closed her eyes. She did not wish to stay awake any longer. She felt a grave sorrow as she re-convinced herself that Satoru was dead. She had nearly fallen asleep when she heard movement coming from the west side of the village. She sprang awake and ran to where Kagome and Shippo were, shortly outside of the tailor's home. "Kagome, Shippo, go inside the house and stay. Hide the family with you as well. There's something coming and I don't like the feeling I get from it."

Kagome looked at Kyoko quizzically. "Why?"

"Just GO! It's not safe here!"

Heeding Kyoko's words, Kagome grabbed Shippo and ran into the house. She warned the people inside of an approaching danger as they went into hiding. Kagome rushed down into the old man's basement, carrying the little boy Ken and Shippo with her.

****************************************************

Kyoko flexed her claws as she saw a figure enter the village. She was unable to identify a face due to the armor he/she wore. She looked past the figure to see that a full army of samurai warriors followed it. [There are so many… They have already surrounded me…] She tensed as three of the warriors, apparently leaders, approached her. "Who are you?" She snarled as she readied herself for an attack.

The eldest of the three looked over the now abandoned village. "Yokai, what have you done to this village? Have you slaughtered these people to feed your own vicious hunger?"

"The villagers here have been dead; I know not what has killed them."

"Feh, and why should I take the word of a yokai?"

"If you weren't going to believe my answer, then why is it that you asked? Besides, it is not as though I have reason to lie."

The man whispered into the ear of the warrior next to himself. They nodded as the elder man cried out, "Kill her!"

Before any of the men had begun to attack, the third man interrupted. "But sir, she is a woman."

"It matters not; female yokai are typically much more cruel and cunning than the males are."

[Dammit, I can't let these men kill me now… I still have things to do; I need to find out about Satoru, I need to find Sesshoumaru… I must also defend the remaining villagers and Kagome and Shippo… I cannot allow them to be in harm's way for my own sake… but… perhaps I can…] Kyoko stepped back, still contemplating.

"KILL HER!!!"

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Kagome watched in fear through a crack in a door that led outside. [She's surrounded…] Kagome shifted her gaze towards the three men standing in front of Kyoko. She gasped in shock when she realized that one of the men was carrying a shard of the Shikon no Tama. [Inu Yasha… please, where are you? Kyoko needs help!]

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Inu Yasha suddenly stood at full attention, as though he had heard Kagome's wish for help. His ears twitched as he took in the sounds around the village. "Shit! There's something attacking the village!"