Cursed

CHAPTER 13


“I’ve been expecting you,” the old woman said softly. Ranma stared at her. The very last thing that he’d expected in his search for the old woman who might be able to help him break his curse was to find that she was youkai. “You were…expecting me?” he asked hesitantly.

She smiled, her old face creased and lined. “Young demon, I may be old and too feeble to hardly leave my cave these days, but I am aware of what happens on this mountain.” She stood and hobbled over to her fire, setting a pot of water to heat for tea. Ranma watched her,re ore of his companions’ silence. Now that he found the old woman, he hardly knew where to begin with his request. When she turned to face him once again, he managed a respectable bow. “Forgive me for disturbing you, elder. I’ve come a very long way hoping to find someone to help me with a problem.”

She smiled and Ranma realized for the first time that she was not just old and weathered, her face itself was badly scarred. “My name is Asariko, young one. I hardly see what a young youkai such as yourself might want with an old woman like myself. What kind of problem do you have?”

“You name it, he’s probably got it,” Inuyasha muttered under his breath. His comment earned him a dark look from Kagome, who elbowed har hard in the ribs. “Ssshh!” He glared at her and edged away. It wasn’t like it wasn’t true.

Ranma cleared his throat. In a few short sentences, he related what had happened to him, how he’d met Kagome, how the Shikon shard had somehow awoken his sleeping youkai blood. “So you see, Asariko-sama, I’m looking for a way to put myself back to normal.”

Inuyasha coughed suddenly and this time it was Miroku who swatted him, bopping the half-demon on the head with his staff without so much as changing expression. Ranma shot a furious look at the hanyou, who shrugged and looked away.

Sango came forward then and bowed to the old woman, who looked at her with amusement. “My father told me that you had taught our village much about youkai magic. I hoped that perhaps you might have some idea of what to do for Ranma.”

Asariko nodded thoughtfullyYou You would be a demon slayer, wouldn’t you? I had heard about the purge of your village. I’m afraid a lot of what I knew about youkai magic has long since been forgotten. Since you have come so far, I will see what I can do.” She made a gesture to Ranma to kneel and hobbled her way over to examine him. Her face with its weathered scars creased even further. Ranma sat quietly on his knees as the old woman’s hands touched him hesitantly, her old fingers ruffling in his hair.

She turned his face to hers and he met her pale blue eyes. “Such an open child you are,” she murmured softly. “You have power insiou tou that you’ve not even tapped. Why would you want to deny it, deny your heritage?”

“I fear I can’t control it,” he said quietly. Her eyes were sharp despite her years. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’ve trained all my life in martial arts, special skills. I know how dangerous I could become. If there’s a way to seal this back up, I’ll take it. I don’t want to hurt innocent people.”

“What makes you think you will? What makes you think you can’t learn to control the youki? You seem to be a strong young demon, surely you have confidence in your own ability.”

Ranma sighed and looked at his hands. “It’s not just that. I have some strange memories inside me, I don’t know where they’re coming from. They make me feel cold inside, horrified. I can see what I’m capable of, I’m scaof lof learning to like it.”

Akane leaned forward and took his hand. He blinked at her and offered the girl a small smile. It was the first time she’d touched him since what had happened between them in the woods. Ranma’s fingers closed over hers and he looked back to the old woman. “Is there anything you can do for me?”

With a small smile, Asariko went back to her seat next to the fire. It was still the warm season, but her old bones didn’t like even the slightestt oft of chill. “I am a youkai myself, I know about the darkness you fear. Such a darkness claimed the lives of my entire clan once. Years ago, we were a thriving community, a strong and vital people. Then we were attacked, slaughtered down to the last woman and child. I survived, I’m still not sure how or why, since I was hardly more than a girl at the time. I have seen the kind of death demons can deal upon each other. To reject such power simply from fear of its misuse, says much about you, young Ranma.”

Her pale eyes found his regretfully. “I wish I could help you. All I can sense is that your ancestor’s youki was sealed off by a demon of incomparable strength. I do not have that kind of power. The seal still holds inside you. I can neither repair it or remove it.”

Ranma sighed, the crushing disappointment burned inside him. “I guess it was too much to hope for,” he said sadly, Akane’s fingers warm on his. “I’ll just have to learn to live with it as best I can.”

“Elder, is there nothing we can do for him?” Sango asked. “My father often spoke of special wards, special talismans that would help to contain a demon’s energy. I use some of them myself in battle.”

Miroku nodded in agreement. “And I often use spiritual wards myself, special sutras for containment and constraint. Is there a way to fashion such a protection for Ranma? If you can’t seal it off completely, maybe we can find a way to contain it.”

Asariko scratched her chin thoughtfully. “My sister knew the making of such things, she taught me a little about how to bind energy. I’m hardly more than an apprentice compared to her, but I have saved some things over yearyears. When my people were destroyed, my sister had already passed on a bit of her knowledge to me. I still have some of her things, they were the only possessions I was able to keep after our clan was decimated.”

She stood painfully and went into the back of her cave, of thf their sight behind a frayed wall hanging. Inuyasha watched the old woman’ow, ow, deliberate mts ats and glanced back at Kagome. “I think we got here just in time, I doesn’t look like she’s going to be kicking around much longer.”

Kagome frowned. “Do you have to be so rude? At least she’s trying to help.” He raised his eyebrow at her. “Do you have to be so trusting? For all we know, she’s completely senile and is going to give Ranma a dried frog to wear around his neck.”

“If it works, don’t think I won’t wear it,” Ranma snapped, shooting daggers at the hanyou.

“There are several uses for dried frogs,” Asariko said. She reappeared and slowly moved back to her fire. “I just don’t think that this is one of them. I may be old, and perhaps a little senile, young hanyou. My hearing is as sharp as ever.”

She held a little box out to Ranma. “My sister made this amulet before her death. She feared for her life and hoped that she could use this to protect herself. I’m sorry to say that it failed.”

Ranma looked at her curiously. “If it didn’t save her, why do you think it would help me?”

The old woman patted his knee soothingly. “My sister was forced into a marriage with a very dangerous, very powerful demon. She had hoped that if it became too much to bear, she could use this amulet to deflect his power. I will never know why, but she chose not to use it. Instead, she offered her protection to a loyal friend in ordo tro try and warn our father against the demon who who had betrayed him. He returned the amulet to my father, who gave it to me when he found that my sister had died.”

Ranma opened the box and found a small clear pendant on a pale silver chain. It was delicate, hardly the size of his thumbnail and sparkled like a cut diamond. “How do I use it?”

“You simply wear it. The amulet should work to contain the wild youki within you. When you feel the youki begin to rise inside you, it will activate and should help you control yourself.”

Ranma slipped the necklace over his head and tucked it under his shirt. “Thank you, Asariko-sama. I truly appreciate that you have done what you could to help me. Is there any way I can repay your kindness?”

She shook her head, smiling as the young people rose and stood around her. “You can repay me by staying true to yourself and fighting against the darkness inside you. I only wish I had been able to give you more. My sister would no doubt be pleased to see her art has been used for greater purpose.”

After they left her, Asariko pulled herself to her feet. Her arthritis had been getting steadily worse over the past few years. She was not as old as she seemed, her injuries as a child had robbed her of much of her natural healing ability. She had been forced to survive as hardly more than a mere mortal woman, and heavily scarred and weak one too. She would never forgive that, not anymore than she would forgive the deaths of her father and clan, or the murder of her beloved sister. Asariko held a lot of ghosts close to her chest over the years, ages of pain had fermented inside her to the point where she hardly noticed the bitter tang of her existence. Her steps were as slow and limping as ever as she made her way to the back of her cave and her sleeping area. He was waiting for her, as she had known he would be.

“I have done as you askedhe she said quietly, ignoring his satisfied smile as she lowered herself with difficulty to her pallet.

“You have done an excellent job,” he murmured, coming over to stand next to the old woman. Asariko didn’t look at him, she might be barely a youkai herself, but she was too experienced to let a demon puppet unnerve her in her own home. “You know how to use the amulet, now you can leave me in peace. I have no desire to look upon you.”

He made a soft sound of amunt. nt. “This is how you dismiss an ally? Without me, you wouldn’t have known they were coming. You wouldn’t have gotten your chance for revenge.”

I miss you, sister, Asariko thought, her eyes closed. She had been alone for such a long time now.

Naraku watched the old woman pretend to sleep. “It was a nice touch, that story about your sister. Arousing their sympathy automatically reduces their suspicion. I congratulate you.”

“It wasn’t a story,” Asariko whispered, her lips barely moving. “It was the truth. I recognized that boy’s bloodline when I saw him. Him and that other one too. How could I not, when I have spent every day of nearly two hundred years thinking about it, hating him more with each passing season. You don’t know what gift you have given me, Naraku. Through that amulet, I will finally have my revenge against Inutaisho.”

*****

“Feel anything yet?” Akane asked for the fifth time that night. Ranma grinned at her. “Nope. And it better stay that way.”

The monk leaned over him to peer at the pendant again. “I can sense no spiritual powers about that jewel. It might as well be made out of air. Do you really think you can rely on it, Ranma?”

He shrugged. “What choice do I have? Either it will work or it won’t. I’ll find out one way or the other.”

“Feh, another fucking waste of our time. Now you got a rock around your neck instead of just in your head.”

Ranma didn’t answer, his fingers fumbling over the smooth surface of the pendant. For all its shimmer, it had no sharp edges. It might have been a frozen teardrop or a smooth piece of glass. At least it didn’t burn into his hand the way the shard had. “Why would she give it to me if it didn’t work? You just have to think the worst about everyone, don’t you?”

Inuyasha looked up at the sky with a smirk. “I’ve learned to. I bet she was just a dried up old bat who didn’t have anything better to do? Maybe she just wanted the smell of you of hef her cave.”

“Would you just quit sniping at each other,” Kagome said finally, glaring at the two demons. She had Shippo in her lap and was brushing the kitsune’s hair. The fox was folded over in a state of half-conscious bliss. “Yeah, you’re both so annoying,” he said, stretching across the girl’s lap.

He flinched at the hanyou’s irritable gaze. “Who cares what you think, runt? You don’t even have enough brains to be scared that we’re this deep in inuyoukai territory, do you? You should be trying to sense danger instead of slobbering all over Kagome’s lap.”

“You’re just jealous that she doesn’t brush your hair too,” Shippo said archly, a little grin spreading over his face. Inuyasha flushed. “I never asked her to, brat!” Damned if he’d let anyone groom him like a pet. Shippo was just too lazy to take care of his own pelt.

Akane got to her feet and started laying out her bedroll. “That’s it, I can’t take anymore. I think we’re all a little overtired and that’s what’s putting everyone on edge. I’m going to sleep.”

Ranma snorted. He knew when Akane took that tone she meant business. “I think sleep sounds like a good idea.” He could worry about the pendant tomorrow. There had to be some way to test it to see if it was working, maybe he just had to get really pissed off and try to beat on Inuyasha. That should bring out his youki and it would probably even be fun.

Inuyasha noticed the diren ofn of Ranma’s gaze and scowled. “Quit looking at me, you damn punk. I’ll cram that stupid necklace up your ass if you don’t knock it off.”

He grinned back at the bad tempered hanyou. He felt no anger rising inside him at Inuyasha’s words. “Maybe tomorrow.” Could the pendant be working already? He hoped so, settling down to lay comfortably near Akane. He yawned, he had to admit he was a little tired. The day had been somewhat stressful after all. He just needed a nap really, as long as he didn’t dream about anything more weird than usual.

*****

His eyes came open suddenly, sensing someone moving below him. Inuyasha cautiously turned his head to the side, he didn’t want to alert any possible predators that he was awake and on the job. At least until he was ready to jump down and hack them into bits. He could pick out Kagome’s sleeping form in the dying light of the fire. She looked peaceful, her chin pillowed on the top of Shippo’s fluffy head. He didn’t see anything that would have alerted him and wondered vaguely if he really was as paranoid as Kagome liked to say.

Bah, he thought, casting his gaze around the edges of the darkened forest. Someone had to be alert, someone had to protect the group. It sure as hell wasn’t going to be Ranma, not with the whiny punk doing everything he could to suppress his natural abilities. That made Inuyasha sick. Not that he couldn’t identify with the young demon’s fear of losing control, he had enough experience in that area himself. He reached down to touch Tetsusaiga’s hilt and was comforted by its familiar touch. Still, to try and seal off everything that made him stronger and faster, kill off the part of him that let him protect Kagome from evil bastards like Naraku? He’d rather cut off his thumbs.

He sensed movement again and this time Inuyasha sat up, glaring down at the campsite and searching for the source of whatever was prickling his instincts. That’s when he noticed that Ranma wasn’t in his bedroll. Inuyasha scratched hiad, ad, wondering if the youkai was just out in the woods taking a crap. No, something else was bothering him, making his nerves edgy and tense. Maybe Ranma felt it too, that was why he was gone. Inuyasha scowled. No way was he letting that punk get the jump on him. If there was asskicking to be handed out, he was going to do it. He wasn’t going to let Ranma hall all the fun anyway.

Silent as a shadow against the moonlight, the hanyou jumped down to the forest floor, searching for Ranma’s familiar scent. Punk couldn’t have gone too far, his trail was fresh and completely unobscured. Didn’t the damn fool know how to do anything right? Swearing softly under his breath, Inuyasha tracked him. Not far away at all.

Ranma was standing in the forest, his face blank and staring. Inuyasha was about to rush up and bop him in the head, but he skidded to a halt. The punk had a funny look to him and Inuyasha’s instincts were screaming that it was a trap. “Ranma,” he said harshly. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”

Ranma turned around, a blissfully happy smile on his face. “Inuyasha, did you hear it too?”

Hear what? Inuyasha’s ears twitched but all he could hear was the ordinary sounds of a forest at night. A rabbit here, a bird there. “No, I don’t hear a damn thing. You spooking out on me again?”

Ranma smiled and Inuyasha really began to feel uneasy. “It’s beautiful,” the young demon said. “I never knew it could be like that. It’s like everything that ever went wrong is now right. Don’t you think that it feels right?”

“You’re talking shit,” the hanyou ground out, approaching him. A swift kick ought to clear that beatific expression off the punk’s stupid face. He noticed that Ranma was holding his hand cupped against his chest. “What do you have there?” he asked suspiciously.

“Everything I evanteanted.” His hand moved slightly and Inuyasha saw a faint glimmer of light between the demon’s fingers. The light was swelling and Inuyasha thought he heard something, faint but growing stronger. He concentrated on it, forgetting about Ranma for a moment. It sounded like…

His hands dropped to his sides, his face going slack. Oh yes, it was certainly beautiful. Inuyasha smiled, his eyes unfocusing as the light wanted to fill him up with happiness. Everything he’d ever wanted or wished for, it was all right here. He could forget about everything that had ever caused him paiveryverything he’d ever regretted or wished hadn’t happened. It didn’t matter anymore. He forgot about Kagome, he forgot about Ranma. It was going to be so beautiful.

END CHAPTER 13