Seeds of Doubt
Chapter 2
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What a concept.
I’d find some way to have a live-action version (hey, they’re thinking of doing
it with DBZ and Akira, so why not Inuyasha????), but
seeing as I don’t…I’m just going to have to settle for all the imported DVDs
that I have. (Its not enough!!)
wench! Stay back!”
front of Kagome and carried her away before the oni’s
huge mitt could slam down and turn the miko into
pate. The ogre’s other hand shot out,
trying to swat the hanyou down, but
well beyond the oni’s reach.
don’t want you getting hurt! Just let me
protect you, Kagome!”
protest any further.
readied another arrow nonetheless.
the Tsubaki-oni again: Kagome’s holy arrows barely
made a scratch, Sango’s Hiraikotsu was consistently
ducked, Miroku’s ofudas and
Kazaana were almost ignored, and Inuyasha’s
Kaza no Kizu only pushed
the oni back.
The situation was a clichéd one—a shard-carrying demon attacking the
little group in hopes of obtaining more, but this was an oni
with a shard, meaning a harder fight.
And right now, Kagome thought retreat was becoming a very attractive
option, though Inuyasha would never allow it.
still alright in his hiding spot, Kagome glanced down toward
unconscious Sango.
Yards away from the trio, Inuyasha was letting
loose with yet another Kaza no Kizu.
hardly scratched the ogre and how the ogre relied on physical attacks, making
it impossible for the hanyou to use his
off yet another attack and lunged forward, ready to squash the smaller
out of the way with no trouble—the oni may have had a
shard, but it was still slow in Inuyasha’s eyes—and
an idea started to formulate in his as as he eyed the cliff the
Screw this.
no Kizu doesn’t hurt this fuck, I’ll use it on
something that it will affect…
Turning, Inuyasha attacked the cliff.
granite, freeing already loose boulders and creating new ones, effectively
removing part of the cliff and piling it on top of the oni.
see ‘im survive that.
he saw his plan work, but his smirk quickly vanished when the
him. He struggled to free himself, but
couldn’t, and was pulled over the path’s edge with the oni.
off the small ledge she was on, but self-preservation prevented her from
leaping to the mountain path 30 feet below.
She could only watch, totally helpless.
The miko hollered for Kirara
the moment the rocks ceased their rumbling descent seconds later, too many
seconds later for Kagome’s liking.
Everything was moving too slowly for her—she wanted to be at the bottom
of the cliff right now, making sure that Inuyasha
was alright.
Touching solid ground on the mountain path, Kagome yelled for
hiding and hopped on, while Miroku carefully scooped
a semi-conscious Sango into his arms before joining
Kagome and Shippo on Kirara.
slow! Without any urging,
the neko’s thick fur and her stomach clenched when
they went over the edge—the drop was, well, she didn’t know how far it was; definitely
not as high as the cliff he pushed the Peach Man over.
tree, but still! He’ll survive
this one, he has to!
Kagome’s self-preservation lost to her impatience and she swung her leg over
she didn’t care.
name over and over, the miko approached the twitching
oni, and removed the shard from its neck; the
rocks settled a bit more, forcing the girl back a few steps.
scrambled over the rubble, hoping to spot a patch of familiar red and silver,
but all they saw was the dull grey of the rock.
started to dig through the debris, trying to remember which hand grabbed
girl, but she turned on him and demanded to know why he was just standing there
like an idiot. Sighing, the monk helped
her shove the heavy rubble away. Twenty
minutes later, Kagome’s fingers were bleeding, but she continued to shout and
dig, not wanting to face the conclusion Miroku had come
to.
was gone.
stumbled forward. A clawed hand came
away from his head and caught himself on a tree trunk
before he could fall all the way.
Balance slightly restored, he pulled away from the trunk and staggered forward,
not seeing the bloody hand print he left behind.
ears with wool and then proceeded to keep on stuffing until his entire skull
was filled with the scratchy substance.
He could hardly see straight, the only thing he could smell was the
blood flowing from his own head wound, and everything sounded completely
muffled. Moments ago, he thought he’d
heard a woman crying out, but he shrugged it off as his mind playing tricks.
brain couldn’t really be trusted: at one point, he’d thought the sky looked
quite green and the grass was equally blue and thought the whole thing was
rather hilarious.
that were whole, or ribs that were not.
He wished he could remember why he was in such bad shape, but everything
was fuzzy, indistinct.
nearly pushing him over and he jabbed his katana—why was he dragging a beat-up
looking piece of metal around, anyway?—into the ground for support.
bangs that hung over his eyes, he saw a woman dressed in the manner of somebody
of high status. The fan in her hand was
whisked open and the winds seemed to grow in strength.
He fought to stand straight, but the wind kept pressing him back and
everything was getting fuzzy, especially his vision.
grass.
smiled. This was way too
easy. Inuyasha
was at her feet, unconscious, completely helpless, and his companions were
nowhere in sight. Absolutely
nothing there to stop her. She ‘
a wind blade to decapitate the hanyou.
swung her hand down…only to find her hand empty.
found her fan still in the air, firmly held by another hand.
cloaked figure—she had yet to find out how Naraku
made his puppets appear at a moment’s notice, where ever he wanted them to.
held out the fan and Kagura snatched it from
him. “Bring him to me.”
the hanyou on her own.
“Did you bring her like I commanded?”
“The old hag is sucking in youkai
as we speak.”
Naraku ignored the
crudeness of Kagura’s statement.
“Care to explain why I had to haul him,” she
pointed to the motionless silver-haired figure on the floor between them, “back
to you, or am I going to remain in the dark again?”
“Patience.
fingertips across Inuyasha’s brow and closed his
eyes.
Reopening them, Naraku
found himself at the intersection of a large number of hallways, each hall
lined with countless doors that stretched on further than any eye could
see. This was Inuyasha’s
mind, or rather, how Naraku perceived it to be, but
unlike other minds the youkai had invaded, this one
appeared to be shaken—walls not meeting the floor and ceiling at right angles,
the floor and ceiling not completely parallel to each other—and it was empty,
quiet, completely still. Normally, the
halls of an individual’s mind were straight and flush and they would be filled
with some sort of activity: a few disembodied voices, a faint scent or two,
even a tactile sensation or a visual image.
In very rare occurrences, Naraku’s mouth
experienced a variety of tastes for no reason at all.
which was very odd—even when unconscious, a person’s memories would still roam
free.
He picked a random hall and started down it.
off of it and those primary offshoots also had halls splitting off of them—an
endless maze of halls and doors.
but it refused to move. When he
attempted to rip through the rice paper held taught in the wood frame, the
paper would knit itself back together before a decent sized hole could be
made. The story was the same with other
doors he tried. Other doors would open
only after a great deal of force was applied, but would slam shut when
doors would give way to the demon’s touch and allow him access to the rooms
beyond, but the rooms were dark, or filled with a thick haze, obscuring his
vision and giving him only fleeting images of movement.
Naraku wandered the
hallways of Inuyasha’s mind for who knows how long;
he found the situations with the doors and rooms repeated over again and again,
but he needed to make sure of what was going on before he made his next
move. Satisfied with what he did find,
attention. Straining, he heard it again
and followed it to its source—this was the only other sound he’d heard beyond
his own footsteps on the wood paneled floor.
He discovered the sound to be emanating from a hall that saw little for
visitors, filled with cobwebs and dust.
was not a straight path, and when Naraku turned a
corner, he was quite surprised to find a solid stone wall barring his
path. And right in the middle of the
wall was an equally solid looking iron door, which was heavily rusted and
covered in locks and chains that secured the door shut.
was hearing were coming from right behind the locked door and now that he was
closer, he could identify the noises: it sounded like the screeching of a
raging beast, intermingled with the screams of a frightened child.
Interesting.
kind of memories would Inuyasha lawayaway from
himself? But now was not the time to
fiddle with the locks and satisfy his curiosity—he wanted some time to figure
out what his grand scheme would be.
He left the stillness of Inuyasha’s
mind.
“So?” Kagura inquired the
moment Naraku’s eyelids slowly slid up.
Kagura, in the real world, it had been only a few
seconds.
Naraku smiled.
“And what did you anticipate,
The two youkai looked up at
the new voice; Kagura scowled at the hunch-backed old
woman and Naraku smiled a knowing smirk.
“Tsubaki.
The koromiko strode into the dimly lit room and her
appearance grew younger with each step until she stood before
pale blue eyes, and dove grey hair.
slithered up around her and hissed at the spider demon.
“This goes against my better judgment, especially after our previous
dealings…but your wind witch said it’d be worth my time.
the moment she’d entered the room and a part of her hoped Naraku
would allow her to take the hanyou in and add his
strength to her own.
face when she finds out that her dear Inuyasha was a
part of me.
“Something ridiculously simple for someone of your
abilities…” His hand motioned toward the
hanyou, who was still unaware of his surroundings,
“Remove Inuyasha’s rosary, the onat bat binds him to
that little miko of his.”
The surprise was clearly evident on
hairline. “That’s all?”
Nodding, “That is all.
Tsubaki scoffed.
her—whoever had cast the subduing spell on the inu
rosary. With no preamble, the koromiko
settled down by Inuyasha’s head, took the beaded
necklace in her hand and slipped it off; the rosary came off with no
resistance. “Here,” she tossed the
rosary at Naraku’s head—he caught it, “I’m sure you
can find a use for that.” Getting back
up, she brushed the wrinkles out of her dark blue robes, but
“Now tend to his wounds.”
Her response was to stare at him.
“I am the lord of this castle.
tasks.” Standing up, Naraku
motioned for a smirking Kagura to follow him as he
departed the room.
Tsubaki muttered under her
breath, but did as she’d been asked.
It took both Miroku and
“No!” shrieked the girl, struggling to get away.
out!” She suddenly slipped free and
immediately started to toss rocks aside again.
Sango came from behind and
hugged the miko tightly, pinning Kagome’s arms to her
sides. “He isn’t in there, Kagome-
to stop—you’ll just hurt yourself even more.
Inuyasha wouldn’t be happy if he found you
like this.”
“I don’t care!
How happy would Inuyasha be if he found out
“Hey!
back up. “And it smells like
The three humans scrambled over the rock pile to get
to the kitsune and all breathed a sigh of relief when
they found the two demons with their noses close to the ground.
Miroku frowned.
“But why?” Kagome started to
wring her hands. “Hurry and follow his
trail, Shippo-chan, please.”
Nodding, the kit went after Kirara
and the humans followed. They were not
pleased how Inuyasha’s trail wove back and forth as
if he were drunk. Kirara
came to a halt beside a tree and chirped, peering up at the trunk.
Kagome gasped at the sight of the bloody
handprint. “He’s hurt!
They took off again, this time at a much more hurried
pace. The hanyou’s
scent trail continued on for another 100 yards or so, leading right into a
spacious meadow, where it dead-ended.
The fox and fire-cat wandered around the meadow, trying to relocate
their friends. Scowling, the
grass and wanted to get a closer look.
Her scowl grew when her fingers came away wet with a dark crimson
fluid—blood.
“What is going on?”
Sango wiped the blood from her fingersthe
the
ground and stood back up. “
nowhere. Are you sure you can’t
find anything else, Kirara,
“Well…there was something, but…”
“I didn’t like it.”
Kagome knelt in front of the fox child and made him
look at her. “What do you mean?
Biting his lip, “I dunno.
as Inuyasha’s.
Kirara didn’t like it either.”
“…Then I fear that someone has taken
The young miko bolted
upright, staring at the hoshi.
shrugged helplessly. “By
either one, or by both, or by somebody completely new.
the castle grounds by Kagura, so Naraku
took the opportunity to take the next step in his plans.
Inuyasha
was still asleep and he would remain that way as long as Naraku
wanted him to. The red firerat robes were long
gone, replaced by pale dusty blue ones that Naraku
had provided; the yukata concealed the bandages
wrapped around the hanyou’s broken ribs, but it
certainly did not hide the bandage on Inuyasha’s
right temple. That head wound had bled a lot and was still leaking by the
time Tsubaki arrived, but after her medical
attention, it was well on its way to being completely healed.
Onigumo
does have his uses from time to time... Naraku
smirked when he picked up the Tetsusaiga from its
place on the floor by Inuyasha’s side. Or I wouldn’t
be able to even get near this sword. Unsheathing the seemingly
worthless looking katana, he draped the battered sheath across his lap and
simply held the Tetsusaiga, examining it. It
had been a long time since he’d last held the powerful youkai
blade and he could sense a definite change in the sword’s power. The
destructive Kaza no Kizu,
the ability to slice through any barrier, and the unstoppable
one didn’t see the sword in action, it was impossible to believe that the
together. Hard to believe, the demon thought as he continued to
look the sword over, turning it this way and that. I was nearly
destroyed by this katana…but now it will destroy for me.
Placing the Tetsusaiga next to its scabbard,
violet light glinted through the cracks between his hands and moments later, he
opened his hands, revealing a dark violet crystal that was about half the
length of his first digit. Though it was similar in nature to the one the
ookami prince had been tricked with—a solidification
of toxins and poisons—this crystal had little something more:
the Shikon shard that controlled the
crystal would act as a link between him and the hanyou
and put him in control of just about anything: the Tetsusaiga,
Inuyasha’s body, and most importantly,
Taking the sword again, Naraku gripped the hilt and
took the crystal and forced it against the tattered hilt, right below the
and sparked in protest, fighting Naraku’s
efforts. Naraku’s answer to this was quite
simple: he pushed harder. This was a battle of wills: Naraku’s
verses the Tetsusaiga’s
master. And seeing as Inuyasha was lost within
the darkness of his unconscious mind, the sword’s strength of will was weaker
than it should have been. Naraku sensed two
other presences within the blade, but they were faint, almost negligible; the
to Inutaisho, since it was his fang that made
the sword possible. The Tetsusaiga put up a
decent struggle to maintain its freedom from violation, but once
ceased its protests and the violet crystal was shoved into the
Naraku smiled, rather
pleased with himself—he was the Tetsusaiga’s master
now.
One hand delved into his robes and Naraku pulled a
familiar dark pink sphere—his portion of the Shikon
no Tama. And now, time to deal with the hanyou…
No translations for this chapter
*^*^*^*
wait, sorry… Ahem!
reviewer on AFF! I was so happy when I saw
that I finally got a review for this thing—ya know,
bouncing around and waving my arms around like some hyper kid high on pixie
please… I hope this latest chapter hasn’t
disappointed you!