Cursed

CHAPTER 6


Ranma opened his eyes, waking slowly. His first thought was that he’d overslept again and wondered why Akane or Kasumi hadn’t called him in time to get up for school. He focused blearily on the ceiling, it was a simple wooden construction and the smells in the air had nothing to do with the morning routine of the Tendo dojo. Gradually he remembered where he was and what had happened. He was five hundred years in the past in the Sengoku Jidai. I’m really still here, he thought. And I’m really still jacked up.

He groaned a little as he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. It hurt where that crazy hanyou had clobbered him yesterday. Ranma looked around, the small hut was empty, the fire having gone to cold ashes some time ago. He yawned, feeling irritable and hungry. “Guess I must have slept through breakfast.”

A light step on the floor behind him made him turn. Kagome was standing there holding a steaming cup in her hands. “Good, you’re finally awake,” she said. She knelt and held out the cup to him. “I know it’s just instant ramen, but are you hungry?”

He took the cup from her gratefully. “Right now I’m so hungry I’d even eat Akane’s cooking.” Kagome looked at him with a puzzled expression, watching him slurp down the hot noodles. “Are you saying she can’t cook?”

Ranma smiled. “Not if you ask her, but be careful if she offers to make anything for you. I’ve been poisoned too many times myself.” He drained the cup and looked at Kagome, noticing not for the first time that she was an extremely pretty girl. “Hey, I’ve been wanting to ask, how did you find this place anyway? Did you fall down that well or something, I would have freaked out.”

She grinned and got to her feet. “Something like that and yes, I was pretty freaked out. For a while I didn’t realize I could use the well to get back home, my family was really worried when my brother tried to tell them where I went. The villagers didn’t know what to make of me, but at least no one tried to hurt me. They don’t really like strangers around here.”

He laughed at that, a Tokyo schoolgirl stuck in the warring states era. “I bet they were almost as scared of you as you were of them.”

“You could say that, Kaede was kind to me from the beginning. She’s even been teaching me about herbal medicine, I wish I had more time to learn things from her.” The girl’s expression grew somber. “Unfortunately, when I am here we’re usually too busy tracking jewel shards and trying to find Naraku.”

The young demon grimaced. He’d gotten a history of the Shikon no Tama the night before, along with the story about how the evil demon Naraku was trying to collect the shards. He looked at his hand, the one that he’d held the jewel shard with and wondered just what it had done to him. Kagome said the shards were safe enough when in her care as her touch purified them and rendered their evil powers inactive. He had a feeling there was a lot more to that story than she was letting on.

“Bitch, where are you?” a voice shouted just outside the hut. Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes at Ranma. “I’m right here, Inuyasha. You don’t have to scream at me.”

Ranma followed Kagome out of the hut. Miroku, Sango, and Akane were sitting together on a bench but Inuyasha was perched on a fence post, scowling darkly. “Did you tell him?” he demanded.

Kagome frowned, glancing back at the young demon. “No,” she admitted. “I haven’t had a chance yet.”

“Tell me what?” he asked suspiciously. Akane grinned and jumped up. She gestured at Sango and Miroku. “While you were sleeping, we’ve been talking about your problem. Sango thinks that your ancestors’ demon blood might have been sealed off somehow, the Shikon no Tama just released it. If that’s true, its possible you might be able to seal it again so you can go back home and not have to worry about going crazy and hurting people. Isn’t that great?”

He scratched his head. “I guess so, but how do I seal it off again? I don’t even know what that thing did to me.” Inuyasha made a disgusted noise. “Doesn’t matter what it did, it’s done. Better learn how to live with being youkai. You won’t be able to run away from it for very long.”

“I’m not running,” Ranma snapped. “I don’t want to be youkai, if there’s a way to cure it, I’m going to find out how.” He didn’t know how to explain to the others about the cold alien feeling that had flooded him during the fight with Inuyasha. More puzzling and uncomfortable were the things he’d seen. It was like he’d been yanked forcefully out of himself and shown someone else’s memories. He didn’t know who they belonged to, but they felt cold and evil. He knew he didn’t want to feel like that again.

“Idiot,” Inuyasha grunted, looking up at the sky. The stupid punk didn’t know what he was saying. He knew of only one way for a youkai to become human and that was using the Shikon no Tama. Somehow he doubted if Naraku would hand over his shards of the jewel if they asked him politely for help.

Miroku nudged Sango with his elbow. “Go on, tell him the rest.” The demon exterminator smiled at Ranma. “In the village where I grew up, we heard a lot of stories about different kinds of youkai. Some of them were true, some of them were just legends. My father told me about an elderly woman who lived in the western mountains. Supposedly she passed down a lot of information and legends regarding youkai magic and curses to our village. If she still lives, she might be able to help you find out what happened to you, maybe even reverse it.”

It was too much to hope for, Ranma thought. An old woman who might or might not still be alive, might not have existed at all. Who might be able to help him, if they could find her in the first place. What the hell. “If that’s all we’ve got to go on, I’ll try to find her. It’s the best I’ve got.”

“We’ll help you find her,” Kagome said, a wide smile on her face. He grinned back at her. Akane came over to his side and took his arm. “You see Ranma, you don’t have to go through this alone.”

“Are you guys about done with this sappy crap?” Inuyasha said, sounding bored. Kagome shot him a dirty look. “Why? Is it making you uncomfortable?” He flashed a grin at her, drawing his sword. “Nope, but my nose tells me that there’s something ugly coming, you want we should fight it or maybe you’d like to hold its hand too?”

Ranma was suddenly aware of a very unpleasant odor in the wind. It smelled like a backed up sewer. “Oh man,” he said, covering his nose. “That’s pretty rank, what could stink like that?” Inuyasha gave him a curious stare but the others looked around in confusion. “I don’t smell anything,” Miroku said mildly.

The hanyou gave Ranma an appraising grin. “Well, at least you’re not nose-blind like the rest of them. Follow me, punk. It looks like we’ve got company.” They had almost reached the edge of the forest when the smell became overpowering. Ranma gagged and covered his face. Inuyasha gave him a pitying look. “Close off your nose, idiot. You’re no good to me if you’re puking.”

The young demon took a few deep breaths through his mouth. “I’m not puking, what the hell is that?” Inuyasha scratched his head, peering intensely into the forest. “Not sure,” he confessed. “Most lower youkai smell disgusting, but this one really needs to deal with his personal hygiene. It smells rotten or…” his eyes went wide and he threw himself to the side just as a foul lump of flesh smacked into the ground where he’d been standing. The reek was intense and Ranma actually fell to the ground from the stench.

Miroku came running up beside him and promptly fell over, heaving violently. Above them, a putrid pile of bones and decomposing flesh rolled slowly out of the forest. Its sticky surface oozed decay and it lumbered determinedly at them. Sango appeared in front of Miroku and Ranma, her mask in place to help her stand the smell. “Get up, get up,” she hissed urgently, grabbing Miroku’s sleeve to yank the dizzy monk to his feet. Inuyasha was already in the trees, a sleeve held over his sensitive nose. “Sango,” he shouted, “can you get a clear shot at it?”

“If I knew where its vital organs were,” she retorted, unslinging her boomerang. She sighted up the middle and let fly with a powerful throw. The boomerang sliced through the mass of twisted flesh and rot to burst out the other side. To Sango’s surprise, the monster kept coming at her, the edges of the wound caking together almost instantly. “It didn’t work,” she yelled, backing away. “Damn, it’s heading right at the village.”

The thing seemed unaware of them, it just kept oozing along, leaving a wide trail of gore behind it. Miroku leaned heavily on Sango’s shoulder. “That’s no demon, it’s not even alive,” he gagged. “Can’t you tell? There’s no presence of ki or youki.”

“Great,” Inuyasha muttered, hopping down from the tree. “How do we kill what’s not alive?” Miroku straightened grimly. “Stand back, I will open the Air Rip and suck it up, at least then it won’t make it to the village.”

Sango grabbed his arm as he stumbled. “You can’t even stay on your feet from the smell of it, the Air Rip will suck you up along with everyone else.”

“Damn it,” Inuyasha said grimly. “I hate to waste Tetsusaiga on something like this but it looks like we don’t have a choice.” He stood directly in front of the oozing mass, readying himself. “Kaze no Kizu!” he shouted, bringing the blade down in a powerful strike.

The blast blew the mass apart, sending clumps of rotten flesh far back into the forest. He’d tried to put as little effort as possible behind the blow, hoping for a minor earthquake instead of the full frontal force of Tetsusaiga. A great crack opened in the earth where the vile thing had been. Chunks of debris were still dropping around their heads, sticky and smelly. He swung the sword around, shaking off the disgusting fallout. “Well, that was nasty.”

Ranma whistled softly, impressed by the power unleashed by the blade. The hanyou was still trying to shake the sticky mess off when he brought the blade around in an upswept, graceful arc and Ranma’s mind went blank, mesmerized by the glowing katana. For a few seconds, he didn’t know who he was, time had stopped and Ranma stared at the edge of the Tetsusaiga as it glittered in the air. He fell to his knees, unconsciously raising his chin as if he expected the blade to come singing through the air to take his head from his shoulders with its radiant edge.

“What the fuck?” Inuyasha felt the sword pulse hard under his hands. It started to shake wildly, emitting a high pitched shriek that sounded angry even to him. Ranma was kneeling in front of him, his head thrown back as if he wanted the blade to find his throat. “No!” Inuyasha shouted, trying to wrench the sword away from Ranma. The damn thing wanted him, he’d never felt anything like that before but he knew the katana was crying for Ranma’s blood. Inuyasha jerked the sword back and drove it into the ground with all his strength. The shrieking was cut off abruptly as the blade transformed back into its quietly sleeping appearance.

Ranma was oblivious to the hanyou’s struggle. His eyes had gone wide and blank, he didn’t see Inuyasha fighting the Tetsusaiga in front of him, he couldn’t hear Miroku’s or Sango’s voices as they shouted his name. All he could see was a windswept hillside, feel the hard stones under his knees. Confused, he tried to shake off the feeling and couldn’t manage to move his head. His body felt frozen, his limbs too heavy to move. Helpless, he looked up and saw the edge coming toward him. His heart suddenly filled with a mixture of hatred and grief as he tried to see the face of his executioner. Just as he looked into the man’s strange golden eyes a scream ripped from his throat and everything went dark around him.

*****

“Is he going to be okay?” Akane was kneeling over Ranma’s unconscious body. “What happened to him out there?”

“We don’t know,” Miroku told her. He ld ind in to pry back one of the demon’s eyelids. His pupils were pinpoints but his chest rose and fell with his deep breathing. “That thing wasn’t even alive, it didn’t touch Ranma. I’ve heard of something like that happening before, an oni or lower youkai must have died but his body kept moving, absorbing anything it could take in. The soul was gone but left behind a walking corpse. I never thought to see one of that size, you’d think it would have rotted away a long time before getting that big.”

“Someone set it on us,” Inuyasha said bitterly. “I don’t think it was just a coincidence either. Someone had to feed that thing until it was big enough to take out a village. I only know one monster that has that kind of sense of humor.”

“You think it was Naraku?” Kagome asked quietly. “Could he also have attacked Ranma, maybe used that creature for a diversion?”

Inuyasha shrugged. “Why the hell are you asking me? I don’t have an inside on what goes on in Naraku’s head. Ranma just dropped suddenly, stupid punk was begging me to kill him. Begging someone to kill him anyway, I could hardly hold back the Tetsusaiga.”

Akane took a wet cloth from the water Kaede had brought her. Cold would be better but she didn’t think Ranma would be too happy if he woke up wearing his cursed female body. The water was just warm enough to keep him from changing. “He didn’t ask you to kill him, I won’t believe it.”

“If you’d seen him, you would,” Sango murmured. “Didn’t he scream at you, Inuyasha? I thought he said your name.”

“No!” he snapped, his face flushing suddenly. They stared at him, confused. He jumped up and stalked out of the hut. “Yell if the punk comes around, I have some questions for him about his fucking curse.” The late afternoon breeze was warm on his face, blowing his hair around. He scowled to himself as he sat on the nearest post. It wasn’t his name the fool had screamed, but he sure as hell wanted to know where he’d heard it. As soon as Ranma recovered, he had every intention of beating the truth out of the young youkai.

Kagome frowned, Inuyasha was being a jerk, even by his normal standards. She tugged on Sango’s sleeve. “Let’s just leave Akane to watch over Ranma, we’re not doing him any good by clustering around him.” Akane looked at her gratefully, Kagome seemed to understand how hard this was for her to deal with. As the others left the hut, Akane reached out and ran her fingers along Ranma’s cheek. The blood red stripes stood out vividly against his pale face. Akane wrung warm water out of the cloth and gently wiped the boy’s face and neck. His skin was cool to the touch, but he was still sweating. Carefully, she loosened the fastenings on his shirt so she could wipe away the perstiontion that was coating his body in a fine sheen. He stirred at her touch and she laid her palm on his chest. “Ranma?”

“What happened to me?” Ranma had opened his eyes and they focused blearily on her face. “Akane, are you okay? I must have blacked out or something.” His hand came up to hers where it lay on his bare chest. She smiled down at him and even reached to brush the hair out of his eyes. “Everything’s fine now,” she told him. “Do you remember anything?”

“No,” he said softly. “I didn’t do anything awful, did I?” She shook her head. “Of course you didn’t do anything awful. Sango said that you just kind of fell over like you were in some kind of trance. They carried you back to the village a few hours ago.”

“Hours?” He was puzzled, it didn’t feel like he’d been out that long. He relaxed, closing his eyes. He felt Akane waiting for some kind of answer. What happened, he asked the inside of his eyelids.

“Is he awake?” Kagome poked her head in the door. She’d heard Ranma’s voice and decided to check up on her friends. He grinned at the girl. “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“That’s a pity,” Inuyasha said, peering at him over Kagome’s head. Ranma felt a sharp shock when he looked at the hanyou’s face and sat up swiftly. “You son a bitch,” he shouted. “You tried to cut my head off!” The vision came flooding back to him, he could hear the sword whistling through the air just before it struck. He was so angry he could hardly see straight, he’d have gotten to his feet and attacked Inuyasha but for Akane trying to hold him down.

“Ranma, listen to yourself,” she said urgently. “He didn’t attack you. Sango and Miroku were there, they saw him put the sword in the ground to save you from it.”

Inuyasha snorted. “If I’d tried to kill you, punk, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” He crouched on the floor in front of Ranma, his eyes glittering intensely. “Why don’t you tell us what really happened out there? You didn’t even know we were there, it was like you went somewhere else. Talk.”

The young demon looked down at his hands, anywhere but at Inuyasha. “I don’t remember anything,” he said sullenly. He felt Akane’s hand slip into his own. “Sango said you screamed something just before you passed out. It was a name. Don’t you remember that?”

Ranma scowled. “It was just, it was just a dream, Akane. It didn’t mean anything. For a second, I thought I was someone else, some guy was standing over me with a huge ass sword. I knew he was going to kill me and I couldn’t move, couldn’t even defend myself.”

He closed his eyes. “I didn’t want to defend myself, I just wanted it over with.” He gripped her hand, still holding his. “I wanted him to kill me,” he said softly. “I wanted to die because I was too ashamed to live. I’ve never felt anything like that before. He knew it too, I could see it in his face.”

“What did he look like?” Inuyasha was staring fixedly at the wall behind Ranma, his face unreadable. Ranma considered the question. “He was wearing armor, he had white hair pulled up in some kind of long topknot.” The boy frowned. “Now that I think about it, he did kind of look like you. That’s why I thought you attacked me. Why? Do you know who he is?”

The hanyou just stood up and went out the door. He stopped just outside and took a deep breath, not trusting himself to look back at the confused youkai. “His name was Inutaisho, you yelled out that name just before you fell over. He’s dead, you don’t have to worry about him coming after you.”

“Inuyasha?” Kagome asked, struck by the similarity to the names. He didn’t turn around. “Yeah, Kagome. He was my father.”

*****

“So why would Ranma have a dream about Inuyasha’s father?” Miroku was laying on his side near the fire in Kaede’s hut. Night had come and the village was peaceful, quiet. Kagome sighed, stretching out her legs and thought about the question. Miroku followed the line of her legs with his eyes, quickly averting his gaze in case Sango noticed. “You have to admit it’s a little odd.”

Kagome shook back her hair. “Yeah, it is. Inuyasha doesn’t want to talk about it. He’s never told me anything about his father, only that he diust ust after he was born. That’s sad, my father passed away a few years ago, but at least I knew him. I can’t imagine not knowing what he looked like or how his voice sounded.”

“What about his brother, didn’t he ever tell Inuyasha anything about him?” Sango was idly tracing the grain of Kaede’s wooden floor with her fingers.

Miroku grinned. “Well, you’ve seen him. What do you think? Even if Sesshomaru chose not to kill him the last time, he made it perfectly clear that he’ll choose the time and place when he does. I don’t think that sounds like he’s going to be open to a heart to heart talk about it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Kagome sighed. Inuyasha had made himself absent for the rest of the evening, determined to let the matter drop. He could be so stubborn, she thought crossly. A light step drew her attention, Ranma and Akane were back. The young demon had needed a bath, having been struck by several smelly morsels of the decomposing dead thing that had attacked them. She hid a smile at the sight of the demoness. That river was cold, she knew from first hand experience.

Ranma plopped onto the floor, still damp and looked around her with an embarrassed smile. Sango stared at her, fascinated. “Does it hurt, changing back and forth like that?” The youkai grinned, showing pearly white fangs. “Naw, it never hurts, sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable. For a second it feels like my skin tingles sometimes, but I don’t notice it much anymore. I guess it just happens too fast to hurt.”

Shippo jumped into her lap. “What do you want, runt?” The kitsune cuddled against her chest. “You’re so soft, you remind me of my Okaa-san.” The demoness colored and Akane coughed to cover up a laugh. “You know, Ranma, I think that’s the first time anyone has ever thought you reminded them of their mother.”

She chose not to dignify Akane’s comment with a reply. Ranma reached over the fox’s head and took hold of the small pot of water that was simmering over the coals. “Do I still remind you of your mother, kid?” The kitsune wrinkled his nose at the now male Ranma. “No,” he sighed. Shippo scooted back to Kagome’s lap. “You don’t smell as good either.”

Kagome stroked the fox’s hair. “He didn’t mean to insult you, Ranma. Shippo lost his parents some time ago. Some youkai don’t have very long lives here.”

“I’m beginning to figure that out.” He was still baffled, not understanding the bizarre vision he’d had. He felt much better after his bath, the cold water had driven off the ghosts and doubts. He managed to grin at Akane with his usual confidence. “I’d sure like to know why Inuyasha’s father seemed to want to kill me.”

“Maybe because he just liked killing,” Inuyasha said coldly. They turned to look at the hanyou. “I don’t know why you saw what you did, punk, but it sure sounds like the old man.”

Kagome looked eager. “Have you remembered something about him?”

He waved his hand at her. “Of course not, dummy. That doesn’t mean I haven’t heard the stories. You think Sesshomaru’s a hard ass, believe me, he doesn’t even come close. Ask Myoga about him sometime, if the damn worthless fool ever shows up again.”

Inuyasha flopped carelessly on the floor, rolling over on his side to address Ranma and the humans. “All I really know is that he was a bastard straight from hell, there’s youkai west of here that won’t even say his name out loud. That’s one of the reasons I’ve never gone back there, who wants to be reminded their father was a bloodthirsty maniac?”

“You’ve never gone home, not even once?” Sango asked. The hanyou shrugged.f cof course not. Why would I? It’s not like I was even born there. Sesshomaru was, but he’s not the kind of family you want to seek out. I knew that even before he decided to be a pain in my ass about Tetsusaiga. I only saw him once before that, when my mother died he paid me a visit, just to get a look at me. Said I belonged with the weak humans and he was going to try to forget I’d even been born.”

“What did you do?” Kagome asked quietly. She’d never seen Inuyasha willing to talk about his family before and she was dying to ask questions but didn’t want to risk him clamming up again. He looked thoughtful, as if he didn’t realize how intense their attention had become. “I asked him to take me with him, I didn’t like my mother’s family much. They thought she’d done something awful by falling for the old man and having a half-breed kid.”

“That’s terrible,” Akane breathed. Ranma was looking fixedly at the fire, trying to imagine what that must have felt like. Inuyasha grinned at them. “Oh stop feeling sorry for me, I don’t need your pity. Not then and not now. Sesshomaru just smacked me across the face and left me there anyway.”

Kagome thought that certainly sounded like something Inuyasha’s brother would do. “How old were you?”

“Five, I think.” He looked at her and his expression softened slightly. “Don’t let it bother you, Kagome. It’s ancient history

to me. When I was old enough I left on my own. My mother’s village doesn’t even exist anymore, it was buried by a landslide years ago.”

Ranma leaned his fist on his chin. “And you’re not even curious about your father, you just believe the stories you’ve heard?”

Inuyasha glared at him. “Why would I be curious, he means nothing to me. He shoulda been more careful and not gotten himself dead. No big loss there either.”

“Oh,” Ranma said. He was a little surprised by the hanyou’s casual attitude. His own father was devious, underhanded, and a craven coward but he still didn’t think he could brush off Genma’s death so lightly. Maybe youkai didn’t feel the same about their parents as humans did.

The hanyou lay back on the floor, one arm pillowing his head. “Like I said, it’s ancient history. The old man’s been dead for nearly a century, I’m not going to waste my time on the past.”

“Huh?” Kagome looked shocked. “What do you mean, dead for nearly a century? How the hell old are you, Inuyasha?” He frowned, quite obviously searching his mind for the answer. “I dunno, do I count the fifty years I was stuck to that tree?”

“Yes, you count the fifty years you were stuck to the tree,” she snapped hotly. “Um, let me think. I’ve got to be around…ninety?”

Miroku grinned. “You’ve endured well, my friend.” Kagome looked angry. “I can’t believe after all this time you never told me that you were that old. What were you thinking?”

“Hey, demons age differently,” he growled. “What the fuck is the big deal, Sesshomaru’s got to be pushing two hundred. You don’t see him slowing down, do you?”

“That’s not the point, you should have told us!” He jumped up, looking annoyed. “That’s it, I’ve had enough of your crap, I’m sleeping outside!” Kagome followed him to the door. “Good! Don’t let us get in your way, you arrogant jerk!”

“I’m lost,” Ranma muttered to Akane. She hid a smile from Kagome’s angry glare. Miroku and Sango were doing the same, their eyes twinkling merrily. “I’ll explain tomorrow,” she told him.

END CHAPTER 6