Raindrops

Chapter 2: The Journey begins ………to end

It had been raining…raining heavily, raining for two weeks straight. It was still several moons from the monsoons and the ominous weather was causing havoc all over feudal Japan. But even with all that was happening around him Sesshoumaru continued on with………whatever he did, unperturbed by such lowly things like the rain. Jaken on the other hand was being put through hell as he attempted to keep Rin on Ah-Un and keep her from getting wet.

‘Though Lord Sesshoumaru never asked me to keep the girl out of the rain’ Jaken continued to struggle to keep the hyper girl under the cloak he was attempting to cover her with, ‘I still know it’ll be me suffering the consequences if the girl gets sick. Why must humans be so weak’.

Jaken looked up towards his master hoping that he’d silence Rin; he was one of the only creatures capable of commanding the attention of the girl. But then again Lord Sesshoumaru was Lord Sesshoumaru, probably lost in his thoughts, thinking of things no other creature would dream of, let alone comprehend.

Jaken was going to vent his frustration on Rin when he was silenced by the sound of a man chanting. Though the rain made it almost impossible to see and even harder to hear anything, the chants seemed to cut through the buzz of the rain like an arrow.

There, on the side of the path sat a priest, perched upon a small mound of stone prayer beads in hand…muttering to himself. The lines etched across his face revealed the many years he had spent on the mortal plane, the cloth on around his eyes displaying his blindness to the world. Lord Sesshoumaru passed, ignoring the priest’s presence and so, Jaken thought nothing of the man...until Sesshoumaru passed. Jaken noticed that the priest was now…well if Jaken didn’t know better he could have sworn he was now watching Lord Sesshoumaru. Jaken opened his mouth once more preparing to unleash a new volley of insults when he was again cut off, this time by the words off the priest. Blindly staring at Sesshoumaru’s sword he spoke

“You will be needed mighty one. When the lake of blood comes calling, heed its call. Do not attempt to find it great one…for it shall find you”.

Jaken whipped his head around frantically peering through the rain in an attempt to discern his master’s reaction, to his surprise Lord Sesshoumaru continued to walk forward paying no attention to the priest’s words.

Jaken turned to face the priest again-ready to shout the words that had been silenced twice before, but again Jaken found himself at a loss. Whether it was due to he rain or not was unknown, but the priest had disappeared.

“Who was that Jaken-sama, why did Sesshoumaru-sama ignore him why did he have a cl-…”

Rin’s endless questions barely reached Sesshoumaru’s attention. Don’t be mistaken the Inu-lord heard every word that left her mouth, he was just -as always- lost in his own thoughts.

***

‘Ahh’ Kagome woke with a start, placing a hand on her cheek to identify the source of her discomfort. Her skin was cold as ice, more than that it was wet. Looking up she wanted to cry,

“Great the roof’s got a leak”.

They had decided to cut their hunt for Naraku short and return to Kaede’s until the rains subsided-which at the moment didn’t seem like happening-forcing them to sleep indoors every night of their return journey. This precarious situation allowed Miroku to think of newer more effective ways of ‘persuading’ rich landlords to offer them their hospitality. In the end-though all looked down upon the monk’s actions-the entire group were grateful for the roof above their heads.

“What is it Kagome-chan?” Sango looked at Kagome with a worried expression on her face

“Is everything all right?”

Even as she spoke her well-trained arm rose and-almost playfully-struck a hand that seemed to be slowly making its way towards her rear.

“What’s going on?” Miroku rose innocently rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Slowly the entire group rose from their slumber and began preparing for their turbulent journey back to Kaede’s.

“Inuyasha, please plug the hole” Kagome wanted to get at least another hour of sleep in before she was going anywhere. Inuyasha prepared to retort when the look on Kagome’s face defeated him. So, he obediently jumped onto he roof and began attempting to plug the hole.

Sango in the meantime braved the rain as she began her daily morning warm up. Miroku too sat in the lotus position preparing for meditation but seemed distracted with all that was going on outside

“What are you staring at Miroku?” Kagome egged the monk on in absolutely no doubt what he was so infatuated with.

“Ah Kagome-sama, the sight of Sango training in the rain in her exterminator uniform truly makes me feel safe inside” Miroku continued to shamelessly stare at Sango when he was interrupted by a voice from above.

“Keh!! All you want to do is grab her ass ya shameless monk”

“How could you insult me so Inuyasha.” Miroku looked so…insulted as he continued to speak, “I would never dream of disturbing her when she was in the middle of training”

Kagome had to suppress her laughter. Seeing Sango in the rain swinging Hiraikotsu and her sword with graceful yet deadly accuracy, Kagome wondered whether Miroku’s reasons for sitting idol were out of respect for Sango or fear for his life.

“Your stupid leaks’ been stopped!!” Inuyasha screamed from the roof “Wish it was this easy to shut y-…”

“What was that Inuyasha!!?”

“Nothing mind you own business w-…”

“SIT BOY!!!”

There was now a much bigger hole in the ceiling

***

“I can smell blood!!! Lots of it”

Picking up the sent Inuyasha immediately began sprinting in the direction it was leading him.

“What happened?” Kagome was riding on his back the whole time.

“It’s a lot of blood…human blood”

Inuyasha had a bad, no, a particularly bad felling about the sent, there just seemed to be too much blood.

Upon arriving at its source Inuyasha made a mental note to trust his instincts further in he future. Kagome gasped clinging to his arm. Shippo took one look at the scene and buried his head in Kagome’s shirt. Even Sango who had seen her fare share of gore felt uneasy as she caught up with the others.

There before them lay a small valley; the unending rains had caused the water to pool up in the center. But the water in it wasn’t rainwater. The group looked on…the pool was huge almost like a small lake stretching out from where they stood far into the haze of the rains; it was blood red, and in it were floating hundreds of corpses...or at least what was left of them. Suddenly Inuyasha caught a new scent...

“There’s something in the lake!! Its still alive!!” Following his nose, Inuyasha prepared to brave the crimson waters

He walked into the lake leaving Kagome to squeeze up with Sango and Miroku on Kirara. Immediately, Inuyasha’s foot sank up to his knees.

“Kha!! This thing is a freggin lake!!” human blood bothered the hanyo, even if he didn’t have any thing to do with it.

As Miroku floated over the slaughter he noticed some of the oddest and disturbing things. He too had seen his fare share of death, but never before had he seen such…well there was no other way of putting it, he’d never seen such clean cuts. The corpses hadn’t been ripped apart,there were no small chunks of flesh scattered around; all the cuts were straight, clean as if one had merely...well drawn a line across the bodies. Miroku was about to point this out to the rest when they were all stopped, the familiar sound of chanting could be heard.

“The path it moves, forever winding

The faithful follow blind

Within lies a power unique

Yet one in all mankind”

There, bloody water up to his chest, sat the priest prayer beads in hand chanting his scriptures. On noticing them he stood; miraculously his robes seemed unstained by the blood.

Without any acknowledgements or salutations the priest began to speak…apparently to them.

“There is still work to be done, the end is almost reached, the heavens, they cry for their children. Please, continue on this way, you shall find a path in the mountains…follow it, read the good books, come the dawn you will know what to do. Please this is the last chance to cleanse my soul and rest in peace.”

Before the group could protest the priest continued his purification rituals and disappeared into the rain. Feeling that a greater power was guiding them, the group continued across the field. Finally just when all thought they were going to throw up they found the path mentioned by the priest.

“This feels…strange” Miroku couldn’t begin to express how spooked he was. “But…something tells me we should help this man”

With no objections raised by any of them they began traveling along a path up the mountains. A path, that any villager in the region would swear never existed.