Blue moon and Red Fire

Chapter 36: Hope


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Depressing! I know, it’s depressing, and it’ll get a little worse, but I promise everything will be ok by the very end.
Thanks for reading!
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Just…a little… more…

The hot scent of breakfast hung in the air, sounds of slow boiling and scorching frying combined to make his mouth water.

Souta cringed out of exertion, his body tense, form rigidly mounted in place at his seat. He did his best not to move a single inch, stretching his tail out from underneath the waist band of his pants and reaching the scaly appendage forward towards the coffee table in front of him. He could feel the snake resting placidly in side of him, as if the dead serpent was watching one of those sights just interesting enough to draw your attention but you weren’t sure why it kept it. He didn’t really care. Which was understandable to Souta, he never found himself to be person of any interest anyway.

A mug sat with in arms reach, half filled with milk, and the very end of his tail had crossed the distance and wrapped around it with weak grip.

He tried to lift, but his tail only trembled and the mug only shook, he could feel the cold weight inside lurch lopsidedly and milk spill out. Where the appendage once was numb he now felt both wetness and temperature.

So he gave in and pulled himself to the edge of his seat, allowing a stronger, inward part of his tail to get a better grip and lift the mug off the table. He played around with it carefully, sloshing the milk into a spin inside the cup, then trying to pull it towards his mouth slowly. His tail trembled from the attempted precision, and the mug wobbled at his lips, it nearly spilt.

Foot steps descended down the stairs, not heavy like Inuyasha’s and not as light as Kouga’s, distinctly Houjo’s.

He heard the boy sit down beside him, smelling of clean water and traces of soap. A still Kouga was almost lost to him in the heat of the stove and the scent of food. He couldn’t see the expressions on their faces, and he could vaguely gauge their forms, though not well enough to devise anything from their posture. He didn’t know if they where happy or sad, bad mood or good, the most important sense of a person, he learned, was not obtained through their words. “Good morning Houjo.” His primary sense of information was now lost to him.

“Morning Souta.” His voice was sleepy but filled a satisfaction, he was happy.

He was relived. “You sound like your in a good mood today.”

“I am actually,” Which was interesting considering last night. “Because I just realized something.”

Souta perked slightly, slowly lowering the trembling cup to the table with a soft rattle of wood. “Really? What’s the good news?” He slowly unwrapped his tail from the glass, the tip of the new flesh cool from the milk. After a moment of contemplating his inhabitation he allowed himself to explore the new territory, and in a manor that seemed curious and uncertain he brought the tail to his mouth and sucked off the thin veil of milk.

“It’s not really one thing, a lot of things came to me last night. I guess it’s time for us to move forward.“ Houjo watched with interest, fascinated with Souta’s increasing functionality with the tail. “I don’t think you’ll ever be like you were before Souta.” He started.

“Yeah, I know…” Something not very disappointing to him at first, he was too busy testing the limits of his tail’s coordination… at first. It was only when he stopped to think of what he was before did he start to realize what this may entail. He’d never see *anything* again, a blow worsened when thinking of all of the things he had seen so far. A small span of an entirely new world, the face of his fears, several times, and Inuyasha, he was only now beginning to contemplate what he’d seen of Inuyasha. For a person like him to be comfortable enough to let him see…well, everything… ‘Inuyasha…’

Not only would his world be dark. But he looked different, he was different, in a way he couldn’t even see for himself.

The deepening depression present on Souta’s face was not what Houjo had intended. “Your in this bubble here, and I think your strong enough to start to leave it.” Baby bird, as it occurred to Houjo, learning how to fly. Never an easy lessen but necessary. The thought that Souta was ready for such a thing didn’t even occur to him until last night.

A quiet Kouga, “Think he’s ready for that?”, finally spoke up. His voice was steady and calm, shaking a sizzling pan slightly to loosen a pancake before flipping it with a spatula. “It’s not gonna be easy for him.” Bubble was right maybe, Kouga knew of Souta’s fears, the boy practically advertised them with his actions. Afraid of being abandoned, afraid of being rejected, afraid of being devalued in the eyes of others. Now that he looked as he did, he was afraid of being some monstrous spectacle.

Not so different, he and Souta. It wasn’t one of Kouga usual lists of fears, but this world, run by the humans, did inspire a fear of being different. It was there every day when he’d gone to school, in the way they talked, the fashions they wore, the thing’s defined as normal. If the clothes were wrong you were screwed, and this was something decidedly larger then clothes. Not to mention the questions…which were probably the same questions people would ask him.

“I guess your right, I can’t stay here…” Souta lifted his head and smiled slightly. “The snake would drive me insane.”

Houjo smiled as well. “Well, first I’m gonna help you find your mom and Grandpa. Then, I guess I’m gonna teach you brail.”

“Really?” Amazed curiosity. “You know brail?”

Houjo rubbed the back of his neck and smiled. “No…but I could try to learn.”

Kouga set down a plate in front of Souta and rubbed his head softly.

“Ah! Kouga, yeah, you.” Houjo chirped in remembrance.

“Me?”

“Yeah you! I’m gonna get you back in school.”

Kouga froze, staring incredulously. He couldn‘t move, he couldn‘t think, he couldn‘t believe. “What?!” After all of that, after losing his hope, and nearly losing his mind, after everything he put Houjo through. How could Houjo not be mad? How could he even be thinking of wanting to do anything for him. “But how, I thought you couldn’t do anything.”

“I couldn’t think of anything then. But it’s so obvious, I should have realized it. ” Houjo voice glowered with disappointment at himself, how could he over look such a detail? “Your not a citizen, so we’ll just make you one.”

“Isn’t that gonna be hard?” Souta asked, tail curling in circles under his seat. He felt the snake’s presence in an eerie feeling, like a shadow that didn’t move, whose position beneath him was identical to his own.

“Yeah, but it’s not impossible, I think It’ll be one of the easiest routes.” Houjo was promptly invaded by a strong hug squeezing his chest from Kouga, an amused smile formed, quickly covered by a excited kiss that Houjo couldn’t help but be drawn into.

Inuyasha watched with a warm amusement, the reason why watching the two of them left him so warm he could not discern. “Somebody’s happy.”

Souta leaned forward and listened as intently as he could, the stove’s heat blinding any thermal map he could produce, like light might flood a and blind night vision goggles. The room was nearly shapeless to him. “What?” He hated being blind. He hadn’t paid attention, and didn’t realize Inuyasha had entered.

Houjo pulled back with some guilt, disheartened when he saw the searching expression etched across his face, blank eyes staring forward as if to look right through him. “Oh, Souta, are you ready to go back to school as well?”

School? “M-me?” When did this become about him? He hadn’t thought about school, he’d forgotten it’s existence and his obligation to it, he wondered if they forgot about him as well.

How irrational, of course they hadn’t. “I…I can’t go back to school like this.”

“Souta, we’re not sure your ever gonna stop being like this.” Houjo told him, regrettably, openly. “I don’t know if your sight is ever gonna come back, and I’m sure you know it to by now.”

He didn’t want to think about that, but of course he had, the thought crossed his mind many times, especially late at night when he was sleeping alone again…or not if the snake counted. “…”

A tension formed in the air, and Inuyasha felt nervous at such a difficult, painful prospect being given to him. Of course he’d thought about it, and was no longer anticipating the boy’s sight to return. But Souta was, and for Houjo to simply come out and discard that hope…

Souta didn’t cry as Inuyasha had expected, he didn’t become particularly upset, or froze to processes conflicting thoughts, he simply sighed and nodded. “Yeah. I know.” Acceptance of his weakness and letting go of a far fetched dream.

“So you have to go back sometime, the longer you wait the harder it will be.” Houjo said.

“But…I can’t go back.” A response not spoken fearfully, or hesitantly, but with calm logic. “ I can’t read a book or see where I’m going or anything like that.”

“I think you can see better then me sometimes. You can tell what something is by the sound it makes and …the way it falls somehow. That’s pretty cool. You had no trouble getting around here, I’ve run into more stuff then you. “

“But there’ll be to many people-” Too much heat in one place, especially with the temperature as it is, he reasoned. “-and it’ll be too noisy.” It wasn’t time for him to go back, he didn’t know if he could go back.

“Your a lot stronger now Souta, I’m sure you’ll adjust with a little practice.”

Dread, frequent and well known, the same kind of dread Souta felt when facing the first day of a new school year, presented with the challenges of new classes with new people, new teachers and unfamiliar territory. His fears of getting lost, or the sense that everything would go wrong and become unbearable but he didn’t know how, never came to fruition, not once. This was of little comfort to his fears but it gave him more motivation to confront them. “…Alright, if you say so…” Houjo was right, he was stronger , and he wanted to kick himself for his naïve lust for power. How was that gonna help him now?! He didn’t regularly face demons in everyday life, he wasn’t gonna suddenly be attacked at school…or at least he didn’t see that happening again.

It didn’t matter now, nothing he’d thought before did, he was estranged from that person, becoming something new, but slowly enough not to even realize it was happening, something he could only sense when he looked back. ‘Maybe‘, he sensed unintelligibly, ‘I’ll look back on this and say it’s worth it, or that something good came out of it.’ Just as people always said of bad things, like his mother had said once.

“I knew you’d do it.” Houjo smiled and ruffled Souta’s hair. Souta took in the contact, with all it implied, heard the warm approval in Houjo’s voice and smiled.

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Must have been absolutely vivid, Souta assumed. The humid, muggy air, the sun like a spot light of heat shining down on his face, only casually obstructed by a few stray clouds. The sensations that amounted to a summer day.

With thoughts of school occupying his mind he begun to get up early again, despite the snake’s annoyed protest . It was all he could do while he waited for Houjo’s lessons to begin, something he was actually looking forward to. Though the thought of school terrified him, the idea of actually doing something occupying, something normal excited him.

The more he thought about school, he began to realize that his original problem was most likely, still there. He couldn’t concentrate.

But that had to be better by now right? His mind was stronger, and by that he meant his powers were stronger, and his body was stronger . Maybe somewhere during the acquisition of all of that he’d developed some focus. But now that he was blind he had disqualified most of his options to test such a thing.

He wondered in the direction of the cherry bloom tree, following the sound of rustling leaves , until his hand brushed against the trunk and he sat against it. ‘So, ready to go to school?’ He inquired, not expecting an answer at all from the snake, he got none. The idea of the snake sent his mind into another orbit of thought.

The snake.

Disembodied presence, once constantly hissing and flailing around in his head, it seemed to have calm down. Maybe whatever was provoking him had ceased, maybe he was tired, maybe he’d thought he could beak free and had just given up. Souta didn’t find it’s imprisonment particularly funny, but he found himself smiling. ‘So, finally starting to like me?’, the commit elicited the same response that had been recently dormant in the snake, the sharp hisses made him flinch. ‘Guess not.’

‘Why don’t you like me anyway?’ He spoke, mainly to himself. ‘You did all of this stuff just to come after me, even after you were already dead.’ He ignored the snake this time, thinking back to the very beginning. ‘Was it all just to eat me?’ he wondered.

Maybe it was no use now, no point, the only thing that mattered was the future.

‘We’re stuck together…’ He started. ‘You could at least be nice.’ He was met with a hostile response. ‘Your really mean. you know that.’ Why did he want the snake around anyway? Why did he have any desire to deal with him at all?

He knew it was a demon. He knew it had no desire to be bound like this, and it probably just severed to make him more hostile. Souta had no naive thoughts he could change the snake’s demeanor, or get him to like him. It wasn’t likely, maybe not even possible. He felt no great affinity for the snake, at times he felt dangerously close to hating the hostile combatant held up in side of him.

He couldn’t quite describe it, it was something akin to a sense of duty to the snake and the situation in general. He was the one that had taken that leap and allowed himself to be taken over, it was his own weakness that had caused this. As far as he was concerned he’d put the weight on his own shoulders, and he wanted to see it through, he felt as though he had to. They were both together, both in the same situation. For better or worse he felt somewhat loyal to the snake, it was his responsibility to be, even if the snake would devour him or take him over if given the chance, probably would hurt him if he found a way to. Didn’t matter, not to Souta.

Their dreams were a lot more peaceful, in most of them the snake was pleasantly calm.

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He was still doing it…

Inuyasha closed his eyes, his body sprawled out on the couch , a tense discomfort spreading through out under Houjo’s curious gaze bearing down on him, originating no more then a few feet away on the stairs. For a few more moments Houjo’s head lowered and he was reinvested in the text book, but sure enough, when Inuyasha opened his eyes again Houjo was staring at him with a distant gaze. ‘He’s doing it again…what the hell is he looking at!?’ There was nothing more annoying then being submitted to the constant, silent scrutiny of others, especially when you had no idea what they were evaluating, and what conclusion they’d come to.

Maybe there was something on his face?

“What the hell! What is it?! What are you starting at?!”

Houjo flinched a little, sitting upright , “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize I was staring.” Nervously.

“What are you looking at any way?”

“I was just thinking.”

Whatever he was thinking about clearly involved him. “About what?” Curtly.

“Well…” Hesitant, and it only increased Inuyasha’s annoyance. “Nothing really, I was just wondering if you were interested in anything.”

Where did that come from? What did that have to do with anything. “Interested… Like in what?”

“I don’t know, anything.” Houjo shrugged. “It’s a big world, there must be something out there you want to know about.”

“I don’t know.” Inuyasha shrugged. Such a broad question only confused him, he didn‘t want to think about it, he didn‘t know where to start.

Now that he‘d finally asked. “There must be something.”

Inuyasha only shrugged again.

Eventually he became more feed up with his prodding then he had with the staring.

“What the hell! Leave me alone, stop trying to make me into to some project!” He shouted in aggravation.

Which was enough to halt Houjo. The boy lifted his hands in surrender, silently and peacefully turning his eyes to the wall. ‘Maybe I am trying to make him into a project.’ Yes, he decided, he was. But he’d done the same for Kouga and Souta, and why not for Inuyasha. They all seemed so…lost, he didn’t want to control them but he needed to help them find some kind of course.

Great, Inuyasha sighed to himself and glanced up to Houjo again, now he was curious. “Why do you care so much about it anyway?” it always felt as if he was declaring he was wrong, admitting defeat, when he took an interest in something he felt like he should have been shunning. What did it matter? He’d just screamed at Houjo for goodness sake, he couldn’t consider it.

“I just…” A drawn out pause, a sigh as he composed his thoughts. “ It’s just important to have something your interested in…The pursuit of your interest is one of the things that defines you, gives you meaning.” He said, then smile and ran his hand across the back of his head in a gesture that so often accompanied it. “Life would be boring otherwise wouldn’t it?”

Inuyasha looked at him thoughtfully. “Oh, so thats it.” So Houjo thought he was bored? That alone wouldn’t have been enough to draw him in, but what he said about meaning held a weight. That word recalled a slew of memories where his life’s meaning and the significance of his very existence had been called in to question. He smirked boldly. “I like fighting.” Proving his meaning, his merit through his strength.

“Yeah, that’s the thing….” Houjo had imagined such a response, how right he was would have been humorous had Inuyasha not been serious. “That doesn’t work here.” During his time with Inuyasha he’d gotten the sense of just how important strength was to him, it seemed to define his relationship with Kouga. ‘An Kouga…don’t be so mean to Inuyasha.’ “There must be something else…”

Something else? How could there be anything else? That was the definitive point of his life, that’s how his world worked! Power trumped money, strength held more weight then knowledge, and the most validating standing was how much people feared you. Fear could equate to fame, it was akin to reverence. Fear, despite how he’d diluted himself, was not the same thing as respect, no matter how similar they might appear. “…” No, they weren’t that similar. They really weren’t. “I don’t know…” For the first time he examined what strength was. Strength was threatening, how could it possibly humble those who looked down on him into respect? His enemies were stronger then him, his brother was stronger then him, he didn’t respect any of them, in fact, he loathed them for making him feel inferior. Did he have the same effect on others?

Who cares? Who cares if they all hate me? If I’m strong and they call me a worthless half breed, or some weird mistake, if they curse my mother and father for baring such a pitiful thing… Then they can be beaten into silence, if they look at me as if I’m worthless then I can turn those eyes into trembling terror.

Couldn’t stop them from hating you though. And of course you know that, it’s always there, in the back of your mind. Fear and respect are two different things.

Was this all…Was that all there was to his life, to his hopes and dreams? When had he ever had time for hopes and dreams?

When had he ever thought this hard about anything?

“Most people start off with a question.” Houjo said. “Most of the great discoveries, inventions and the like started with ‘Why?’”

“Why Huh?” Inuyasha folded his arms, fist clinched, eyes narrowed and sifted toward the floor. “Why aren’t their any demons around? Why only humans?”

“Good question.” Houjo was satisfied, it was a start. “I’m sorry I don’t have an answer to give you, but you’d know better then I would, maybe you’ll figure it out.” In that moment he saw it, the same thing he’d seen in Kouga when he first picked up his text book. Only with Inuyasha it was deeper and more timid, it was child like, it was a curiosity Inuyasha would need. “Just keep asking questions and you’ll be fine.”

He felt as if he‘d just been tricked into revealing something, and that feeling made him defensive. “Why’d you think I wouldn’t be fine?” But he still paid attention to it. Houjo had made him question the meaning of his life and the worth of his existence in a way no one had ever done. He’d always been able to answer them with blunt force, show them his worth with his strength, but Houjo…


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Kouga arose early the next morning as he was accustomed to doing. Bare edge of sunlight peering from over the horizon, the wolf slipped out of Houjo’s unconscious grasp and merged onto the same trail he did every morning up to Souta’s room. Out of custom he half expected to see the boy nestled beside Inuyasha, he found neither. Instead Souta was already outside waiting on him.

“It’s weird.” The boy said, clinching his shoulder while he stretched an arm as far as he could. “My sleeps all messed up, I can’t fall asleep at night.”

Kouga massaged his legs lightly to work the tension out of them. “Your blind remember-”

“It’s hard to forget.”

“Not being able to see light has to throw you off.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

They fell into a comfortable pace. Kouga no longer had to taper his intensity since Souta could no longer see him to compare himself against. It was warm, silent, familiar. Souta’s tail erected strait out, completely level as he ran, Kouga curiously took note. ‘Does it get tired? Does he even realize he’s doing it?’ For balance maybe, he concluded.

Then, Souta came out of the blue with questions, has he was prone to do at random intervals.

“Are you gonna stay here?” He asked, simply enough.

He was definitely still a child. “Huh? What do you mean?” Kouga slowed until he was in line with Souta.

“I mean are you going to stay here permanently, or are you going back home, you know, to your den?” He asked the question unflinchingly with all the unwitting bravado a child generally had. Houjo had been attempting to ask him this for a number of weeks, Kouga knew it, Houjo knew he knew it, but neither one of them had been able to get past awkward implicative statements, and Kouga didn’t want to think about it.

But Souta had no problem breaching the painful topics, even more so now that he was blind. Maybe he was becoming bolder in facing the truth, maybe he was growing up, maybe he was just having trouble reading people without being able to see their face. “Well…uh” He stalled, trying to work through weeks worth of failed thought in a few seconds. ’Did he ask Inuyasha this too?’ Knowing Souta he probably did. ‘How the hell should I know whether I should stay or not..’ Frustrated thought. ’Damn, what’s Inuyasha gonna do?’ “I…well…I don‘t know.”

“Your gonna be going to school right?” Souta asked, through labored breaths paced with each step. “I was thinking it’s gonna be hard going back and forth…if your still going.”

School, he forgot about that. He simply assumed he was going, he never thought anything out. “Why are you bringing this up?”

“I don’t know. Everything just feels really disorganized.” He said. He felt a breeze wash his body with cool air, it wasn’t enough to stop the sweat forming underneath his clothes. He could start to smell Kouga’s scent more clearly now, and the wolf was radiating enough heat to be faintly detectable even in the obstructing vail of temperature and wind. “It’s like we’re in this weird limbo, It can’t be like this forever… besides I really want you to stay.” This was what Houjo had been trying to accomplish, some since of order.

Why was he stalling. What was the point? Kouga sighed, he supposed he’d already decided, just too scared to commit. Remaining here felt like he was abandoning his home, his pack, his duties. But what was he holding on too? He had no duties, his pack was dead, they weren’t coming back, and that place didn’t offer him what he now needed. “Well, in that case I don’t have much a choice do I?” He smiled and it was audible in his voice. So this was it, he was leaving home, staying here.

Souta smiled as well, gratifying and comforting Kouga. “I know it wasn’t easy.” He said, barely understanding what Kouga faced in making this choice but knowing there was a weight all the same. “What about Ginta and Hakkaku?”

Ginta and Hakkaku, always in that order, one rarely said with out the other, their name was more of a compound then two separate words conjoined. “… “ This was one obligation he still had left. The two of them were capable of taking care of themselves, even if Kouga didn’t realize that all the time it was true. It was possible to leave them, but wasn’t something he was capable of. He wasn’t strong enough, he didn’t want to, he didn’t need to. “I ’m gonna bring them here, see what they think of the place I suppose.”

“Think they’ll want to stay too?”


“Maybe.” Hopefully.

“What if they don’t?”

“Then…I don’t know…”

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Drifting, floating, falling. Like in space…no, something was pulling him down, there’s no gravity in space, must be water.

Souta opened his eyes, vision met with a familiar blue now seen only in his dreams.

He felt suddenly excited, an energy seemed to flow into him from the water, he wanted to smile, to laugh, move around. He hadn’t been this happy in a long time. The currents washing over him in a cool pressure, pushing and pulling at his clothes, ebbing and flowing. His back fell against something firm, yet soft, like a layer of soft layer over gel, his entire body sank against it. He looked back and smiled at the comfort, the snake was coiled in a tight roll, head resting on the ground beside him with eyes closed.

“Dreaming in color.” He said, thinking aloud, his voice sounded more of a meta-narration, coming from he sky rather than his mouth. Was this his dream, he wondered, or the snake’s. He never had dreams like this, not of this nature. “I guess you have nice dreams too.” Why can’t we do this? Why can’t they be like this outside their dreams. Dream, dreaming in color, he hoped he never stopped, he hoped he never forgot what colors look like. Dreaming in sync, the idea held such a mysticism about it, they really were bound together.

“! “ He felt a jolt, a sharp sensation, it’s duration barely blink of an eye, and left behind a lingering sense of fear. Souta sat up right, a weight, that he could only assume was water, slowing his motions. “What was that?”

The snake moved much faster, it’s eyes were open in an instant and with a hiss an a flick of his tongue he moved and wrapped his body almost protectively around Souta in tight coils, jaw perched just above him.

“Souta!”

The color was gone and darkness returned, instead of water he felt mattress and covers tangled around him. He was awake. That voice! “Where are you?” He never got his name.

“Souta!”

Souta looked to where he knew the side of his bed to be and he saw the wolf pup. ’Maybe I won’t forget colors if I can see him..’ He thought absently. “What? what’s wrong?”

“It’s coming! You gotta stop it!”

Souta could feel the snake shifting anxiously in his head, echoing his own sense of danger. ‘Calm down! Calm down, your not helping!’ “What? What’s coming?” Souta almost kicked himself for being so slow, what else could be coming, why else would he be here?

“The monster!”

This kid, this demon wolf pup of the same age, where did he go when he wasn’t here? “Oh man…” The same jolt, only longer, he recognized it. A phantom sensation, as if he’d just sprouted new limbs over his entire body, had he not had known better he would have thought his body was composed of every single tentacle of the strange monster. “Yeah, it’s coming!” He threw the cover off of himself and scampered out of bed, his hand was immediately latched on to, and he was pulled through the cold, silent dark.

Must be night.

“I can’t see!” He yelped, fearing he’d run head long into a wall. His tail wrapped around his leg and squeezed tightly, it was a small comfort.

“I know, just trust me!” The pup yelled back,. “Watch the stairs!” And Souta did, barely negotiating them at this speed.

Suddenly the grip on his hand was lost and for a moment Souta was too, but then he smelled Houjo and Kouga’s scent and felt the vague heat of their direction. ‘So that’s where he was taking me…’ “Kouga! Houjo! Get up! Quick!”

Ears perked, and body tense, Kouga almost leapt off the couch, tail strait out , with reflexes trained for quick arousal. Houjo wasn’t as quick, looking around with groggy confusion before sitting upright.

“You guys gotta get ready, it’s coming!” He said, before turning to run back up stairs.

“Wait…are you sure? How do you know?” Kouga found no trace of it in the air, something he could usually smell miles away.

“I can feel it!” In his haste Souta nearly ran into Inuyasha, coming from the relative safety of another bed room. “Inuyasha! It’s coming back!” He said before stammering past him, his hand finding a wall and tracing the familiar path way to his bed room.

“W-what?!” *It* was implied, there was never a need to ask what *it* was, not that they knew what it was anyway. How could Souta know that? For the moment he reacted as if he was absolutely, retrieving his Tetsusaiga. When he returned Souta was stumbling out of the room in the most blind manner he’d ever see him move about, pulling on the remainder of his clothing. “How did you…”

And then he remembered, that night Souta had that the dreams were his fault, when he’d said the snake and the monster were one in the same. He didn’t quite make the connection until now, and it was horrifying conclusion. The monster was inside of him, inside of Souta. ‘Oh…no…’ “Souta! Wait!” Inuyasha half shouted, voice wrought with fear. “You can’t go out there.”

“I have to.”

“Don‘t be stupid, you know what happened last time!”

“It wont.”

“You don’t know that!

“I do!” Urgently. “I can control it! I have to go!” He jumped down the stairs, landing on all 4s at the bottom, the impact muted into little over nothing.

The scent erupted potently and Inuyasha’s nose flared at the sudden onset. It was coming, it was fast and it as close. “How do you know it doesn’t go both ways?!”

Souta paused, he never thought of that. Too late now, he could feel that sensation prominently , the snake was riled and anxious despite his attempts to calm him down, it never even occurred to him that backing out was a possibility. “I have to do it.” Decidedly.

“Geez…” Inuyasha sighed, clinching his sword tightly. ’The kid’s only brave when he doesn’t know it .’ An abrupt quake rattled the ground and Inuyasha nearly lost his balance . ‘Souta!’ The door was open, Kouga and Houjo already out side staring at something in the distance , Souta rushed out in such a hurry he bumped into a wall leaving and crashed into Kouga’s back.

“Calm down.” Kouga grasped his shoulders and pushed him back slightly. “You should go back-”

“I can’t!” Souta felt every one of their movements over every inch of his body, he could sense them by they moved of their own accord, he didn’t know if he could restrain them all. His face cringed in an inward strain. “I’ll try to hold off as many as I can but there’s more then before, it’s coming!”

The sound of a sharp burst came in time with the spew of a web of raw, dripping tentacles from the ground at Houjo . “Gahha!” His reaction was almost a flinch, but he managed to raise his sword, brace, and pushed out the power of the jewel shard. A current of electricity coursed out of his body . The web covered cast over him like an unwoven net, a low buzz , a sizzle and Houjo was able to push them off easily. ’Eww…’ His body relaxed and he could feel the liquid the strange tentacles secreted sizzling away.

Another web burst out of the dirt from the side, Houjo’s heart pounded, his blood ran cold for an instant, he leapt backward ‘s and slashed though them with one quick swipe! An arm, tentacles woven together like muscle fibers, emerged from nowhere seemingly, sailing toward Houjo’s back. A snarl came just as suddenly and Kouga sent a sharp kick into the collective, it spiraled to the side and crashed loudly . Houjo was in awe. ’He’s still so strong…’’

“I can’t stop them all!” Souta fell to his knees, to focus rather then out of weakness, and clinched his eyes shut, the lack of circulation in his leg forced his tail to break from his leg and find new safety at his waist.

The grinding of countless minerals of dirt, clay and gravel, an earthy rumble from below, what was stable began to shake and a countless number of tentacles shot out of the ground in chaos. Some launching strait up, others unearthing as if they were cords being pulled out of an underlying layer. A field of them rose at their feet and large rising ones arched in the sky, kicking up a rain of dust and partials. Tall, strange grass, yielding to a gust they seemed like, but for only a split second, blotting out the sun in patches, sharp spears thrusting down on all of them.

“What the fuck! There’s more here then last time!” Inuyasha came to a sliding stop beside Kouga and lifted the Tetsusaiga in the best shield he could manage. The weight that met him was over whelming, he crumbled to his knees and Kouga immediately grabbed a hold of the broad side of the sword and pushed upwards. Houjo pushed so much energy into the shard his body locked completely, he was frozen, an almost visible field of electrified air repelled the rain, burning them into charred disfigurement.

It was loud, hectic, terrifying. Houjo’s mouth went dry, throat stiffening and cracking. No place felt safe, his mind raced with all the possible places and ways that he could be attacked from. The explosive burst came from every direction and his stomach leapt with each one. Mouth wide, gasping in swallow-fulls of air with each heaving breath, wide eyes and pupils darting around fearfully.

‘Move, move, come on, move.’ Houjo could hardly hear himself over his pulse pumping blood through his veins in a deafening speed. His body twitched as he tried to will his muscles out of lock while still using the shard’s power. Push, push, almost…. And all at once the lock gave way and he swung his sword , slicing through the raining tendrils at the stock before they could arch towards him. What followed was a release of energy that nearly left him unconscious. Static streaks of silver lightening arced from his sword, ripping through wide a line of his attackers with a simple sweep over. A trail fell dead before him. “W-whoa!”

“Hey! Focus !” Kouga gave a strong push and a silent signal to Inuyasha , then in unison they both strafed backwards evasively and with taunt agility Inuyasha sprang forward through the rains , slashing through the wave with two , long sweeping slices of his blade. A hoard of them severed, and he kept swinging, almost wildly, barely keeping up with the growth that reached out for him at all times.

‘There’s to many of them!’ Lacking Inuyasha’s stamina and strength, Houjo had a much more difficult time. Sword held tautly he took controlled swings, cutting down a web that came at him like a gaping mouth seeking to devour him. A group cast up from beneath him and bound to his legs and he was dragged down to his knees, then another wrapped around his neck, choking away his voice and his breath. Hastily he began hacking away at them with his sword, and ripped off the appendage around his neck with adrenaline fueled strength. An arm pounded into his back as he tried to rise and with a cry of pain he was shoved forward into the wall of chest high protrusions. A strange, dangerous growth.

He was entangled, but it’s pull wasn’t nearly as strong as some of the other tentacles he’d encountered, their were different types he realized, different strengths for different proposes. “Souta!” Through the weave he could barely see Souta, sitting in the center of a clearing, an island free of the attackers.

Inuyasha was breaking his concentration. “Don’t worry about me!” He screamed out with what sounded like a pain. Everything was moving all at once and it was hard to control it, it was hard to concentrate. Enough to distinguish each and everyone of them and still it. He imagined it would be easier if it were not for the snake trying to pry itself to the surface and take control every time it sensed danger. Troublesome, it was making it harder for both of them, didn’t it see that!? ‘Calm down, stop it! Your not helping! I can do it, leave me alone!’


A few of the tentacles, the archings, the grass, a seemingly random mass all about froze and receded, as Houjo witnessed. ’He really is holding them back.’ Which came with a horrifying thought. ’ If he’s holding them back, what is it not letting through.’ He heard the tale telling wet sliding sound of an arm behind him, ’No!’ He ripped his arms away from his captors, lifted his sword defensively across his chest and the arm hammered into his block with bone jarring impact. It stung and knocked him off balance, sending him tumbling backwards into the strange grass.

“Houjo!” Kouga pushed away from Inuyasha and began ripping through the grass. The same arm that attacked Houjo whipped towards him and shot forward, he reached out and caught it with both hands. With a fierce growl and a strained second, he ripped it a part into two dripping, tangled halves. Before he could drop it he was faced 6 more ready to strike. ‘No! Where are they coming from!’ They attacked, each striking at him no more then a second after the one proceeding it, his weakened agility was put to the test, leaping and flipping to narrowly avoid each one. “Houjo!”

“Don’t worry about me!” Houjo’s arm thrust out of the bed of tendrils encasing him as if reaching out of a grave. He wrenched his sword free, numb and ignorant to the self inflicted cuts he gave himself as he sliced his way free. He sat upright with a gasp of air, staggering to his feet with blood dripping from the side of his face and leaking on to his clothes. Numb to it all, only felt with fear . A web burst from the ground and latched onto his legs, a few even managed to wrap around his torso and clinch on to his shoulders. His boy locked, resisting the pull, and his muscles coursed with the warm flow of the jewels shard’s of electricity. His bindings fell away, gleaming bolts of lighting smearing the air with distorted waves, sparking audibly off of the tip. ’Just one more time…’ He began to realize how tired and weak he’d gotten when he felt just how great a struggle it was to force hardened muscles into motion once more and thrust the sword forward, discharging a ball of electricity and burned a hole forward.

An instant after the grass and arms were cut down, something faster rose in their place. Spears, long tendrils with a hardened bone like edge broke from the dirt and surged right through his stomach. “….!” A strong impact shake him to his core, something so sudden all he felt was a jarring pressure, everything bellow his waist went cold , yet his stomach became intensely hot and wet. His voice felt as if it had latterly been snatched away. ’What… the…’ It was as if a weight had suddenly came over his body…no…as if the strength was bleeding out of it, he struggled to turn his head over his shoulder and his eyes widened in horror when he saw 5 bleeding red polls spanned out from behind his back . ‘Oh no…’ They hooked into him and he was suddenly being reeled forward.

Souta felt the impact, he felt it go through, and it was nothing like he’d ever experienced. He shuttered and his eyes shot open, he felt the weight of Houjo’s body, the warm wetness rapidly cooling, tense, soft, wet, squishy flesh. Was that…was that feeling… “No! No! No!” He pushed himself up and fell face first in his haste , but quickly rising and running almost instinctively through the trail Houjo had been taken through. ‘I don’t get it! Why can’t I keep this thing under control!?’ He cried, horrified , concentration broken entirely. He didn’t care himself or anything else, he had to save Houjo. The well! Maybe it would be easier to stop it at the source!

“Souta! Stop! Wait!” Inuyasha tried to go after him, but was blocked by an uprising ring of tree tentacle, Coming up around them like a mouth taking in everything.. This? This was what he was holding back , what else was down there? “Fuck!” Inuyasha screamed in frustration. “Kouga!”

‘I know! That thing’s got Houjo too!’ Houjo’s blood was frenzied scent that made Kouga’s body tremble with a rage unlike anything he’d ever felt. His heart was going to explode, he knew it, and his flesh was boiling , his vision was fading, as if he was distracted, staring at something but not seeing. It was horrifying, this was it, he was actually losing his mind. It came on so suddenly he began to doubt if his mind had really been there at all, he hadn’t even fully grasped his last thought and his cognition was going dormant. His body became entranced in the changes of heat and suddenly he was absent.

With a air quaking roar he descended into something removed from a man. It’d done something to Houjo, something horrible.

“Goddamnit!” Inuyasha grunted, feeling the ground rattle with more opposition making their emergence. He didn’t care, he’d cut down a million of them to get to Souta. He just might have had to.


! - ! - !
! - ! - !

“Souta! Come on Souta….Wake up!” A voice he heard with out hearing.

He felt a hand, small and warm, press against his chest and hold. It became more weighted as a body leaned over him, somehow without blocking the sunlight cast directly above him. That voice, he recognized it without even being fully consciousness , it’s hard to forget one’s first dead friend.

The snake was moving anxiously about in his head , flooding him with danger laced instincts, and what seemed to be an over reactive fear response. When Souta wasn’t consciously inhibiting the flow it was intense and disorienting . “!!” He sat upright with a start, eyes clinched shut, blindly pushing away the wolf pup, climbed on to his knees, head dropped down, stomach convulsed, and he tasted this morning’s breakfast jumbled into a mixture that wasn’t nearly as delectable coming back up as it had been going down.

He felt a soothing hand rest on his back and rub softly . It didn’t settle his stomach, but it was soothing as only such a nurturing contact could be.

‘Hey, listen to me, calm down, take it easy…’ Souta thought, applying the same inhibition he applied to hold himself back from an impulse, and to contain the expression of his own feelings, on to the snake. He spoke in calming, reassuring tones, saying the most soothing words he could think of. And it seemed to work, the snake settled and the disorientation left him. He breathed. Thankfully.

Why was he so worked up anyway? Was it because he thought his host was dying?

“Souta?”

Souta opened his eyes and glanced over at the wolf pup.

“It’s you…” Souta pushed himself on to his feet and took a careful step, he felt grass under his feet, it was warm, there was a breeze. There was nothing to reflect sound or heat, this place was a wide open field, he assumed. He couldn’t imagine a place where he was more blind and venerable. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, you fell down the well.” He sounded as if he knew less then Souta did.

“I didn’t fall, I jumped.” Souta’s eyes drifted around, scanning habitually over something he couldn’t see. The memory was hazy but present, when he began to switch times he’d felt a profoundly scattering, disorienting sensation. While he was struggling to get it under control, his hold over the snake weakened and was quickly exploited, before he knew it he was taken over.

He felt as if he’d been shoved to the back, and it took a while before he drifted back to the front . Who knew how far they’d traveled in that time, and to where .

“Houjo!” With a frightening and shaking remembrance. “Oh god… have you seen him!? Do you know which way he went?”

The wolf pup looked away solemnly. “I don’t know, the monster was carrying that boy.” He spoke with a pessimistic remorse, there was something quieting about the very implication, the thought of something so absolute as the ending of a life was such a serious thing. Even at his age he understood it.

He more fully then any living being ever could, something Souta could scarcely idealize the depth of . The very thought of it terrified him, a dread seated in him his entire life, always in the back of his mind, underscoring every danger with it’s promise. He couldn’t bare the idea of Houjo meeting that fate, his voice, his consciousness, his thoughts, his presence, his feelings, sinking into the absolute.

He didn’t cry.

“You can find him though, can’t you?” The pup inquired, though sounded sure, rhetorical even.

Souta was caught off guard by the impossibility of it at first, and then he remembered. “…Yeah…I think so.” The sensation of thousands of tentacles was faint, had he not known to look for it, he’d never would have known it was there at all. He couldn’t feel the extra weight of Houjo though. Closing his eyes he slowly oriented himself towards it’s direction and took a step forward. He stepped on a rock and cautiously withdrew. “I…can’t do this…I can’t see.”

Oh no…what was he thinking? What was he thinking! How could he possibly get to Houjo when he couldn’t see where he was going? When he couldn’t see what was in front of him let alone what dangers were surrounding him. Like the snake. This is what caused all this mess in the first place! If he’d never gone down that well…

The wolf pup took his hand and pulled him forward, “Come on.” He said. “Just tell me which way to go and I’ll show you the way.”

He wasn’t as afraid anymore.


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Alright, one last chapter left. Well, not technically, there will be one or two epilogues after that, so make sure you stay tuned after the next chapter. All, will be revealed or eluded to, and I hope you won’t be disappointed at what happens in the final chapter of the subsequent epilogue (or epilogues).

~ SDI