Coyote Tricks: Fox Child

This chapter is rated PG-13 for violence.

Recurring Nightmares

They set out again the next morning following again the scent of Kagome and Inuyasha which had now grown cold but was still traceable. They had to frequently leave the trail and come back to it again because the Oni seemed to be everywhere. Fortunately, their superior canine senses made avoiding them easy.

Lunch was granola bars and trail mix as they didn’t dare light a fire or take the time to set up a camp stove. As they finished eating Yuriko went to take care of necessities while Kit introduced Hanako to joys of the yo-yo. Thanking whatever strange quirk that had made Shippo include the toy in his gear, Kit watched as Hanako quickly picked up the knack and had it going up and down smoothly by time Yuriko returned.
“Mommy, look at what Kit gave me!” she said proudly as demonstrated her new skill.
“I see” Yuriko laughed and her eyes twinkled as she looked at Kit. “Is there no end to the magic you create from the air?”
“There is a little magic” Kit said grinning. “But I can’t create anything; I can only pull out what I put in before. Think of it as an invisible backpack.”

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They moved on into the rolling hills along the mountains. The trail led them to a break in ridge line that went down into a more open forest area below. They continued down the trail and were just moving clear of the ridge when Kit stopped, sniffing the air.
“Oni a lot of them coming this way,” Kit said looking around. “We can’t avoid them down here, we need to head back up the trail and lose them on the other side of the ridge.”

They had just started back up the trail again when Kit sensed them. Another group of Oni coming down the trail, they were cut off!
He growled showing his fangs. His tail fur stood out like a bottlebrush.
“Run, Hide” he growled to Yuriko. His growl had the alpha imperative that would brook no question.
Yuriko froze as her own senses detected the situation and a deep fear crossed her face.
“GO!” Kit commanded again.
Yuriko grabbed up Hanako and ran into the cover of the nearby rocks. Her eyes were filled with silent tears.
‘Gods please not again!’ she silently prayed to herself.

A dozen Oni came over the ridge from above.
“There is one now, get him” one of them yelled pointing in Kit’s direction.
‘There are too many of them. I have to protect Yuriko and Hanako’ he thought and shoving aside the barriers he had erected reached down and drank deeply from the power of the jewel shard in his chest. His demon blood rushed to the fore as his spirit energy flamed visibly around him. Rational thoughts gave way to the coyote.
‘Protect Mate, Protect Pup, KILL!” His eyes glowed bright red as a deep-throated growl grew into a roar and Kit threw himself fang and claw at the charging Oni.

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“This is such a waste of time” Inuyasha groused.
Kagome sighed. Inuyasha had been grumpy all day long and it was starting to get on everyone’s nerves.
‘Hmm, I need to my check my calendar tonight for the moon phase,’ she thought. ‘Inuyasha is always more irritable around his time of the month.’
She suppressed a giggle when she realized what she had just thought.
“Inuyasha” she said patiently to the dog-eared hanyou. “We have to help the local villagers against these Oni attacks.”
“Feh” Inuyasha fehed “like I care about a few Oni. This isn’t helping us find jewel shards or Naraku.”
“It’s not just a few Oni; Inuyasha” the Demon Exterminator Sango chipped in “the Mountain Oni tribe has been raiding villages up and down the range, far outside their normal territory.”

It was the priest Miroku who had developed the best understanding of how Inuyasha’s mind worked. Miroku understood that the dog demon really did care. Given the hard life Inuyasha had lived though, expressing that care was perceived as a weakness. Thus Inuyasha just needed be given a reason to justify his caring.
“You know” Miroku said, “We have seen this pattern before. Some demon clan leader obtains some jewel shards and hopped up on power sends his clan out to expand the territory. I lay odds when we track down these Oni we will find a jewel shard or two.”
“Humph, you better be right monk” Inuyasha said threateningly but Miroku noticed a gleam of a smile in his golden eyes.
‘Perhaps Inuyasha can see through me just as readily as I see through him” Miroku thought.

A small Kitsune child with reddish hair, tan fur on his tail and fox feet leapt up on Miroku’s shoulder.
“Heh, the way Inuyasha’s acting the villagers are going think he is an Oni” Shippo said.
“Why you!” Inuyasha said swinging about to hit the Kitsune but connected with empty air besides Miroku’s ear. The fox child was already half way across the distance to Kagome.
“Kagome, Inuyasha being mean to me again!”
She picked the child up and was about to berate Inuyasha for picking on kids when she stopped.

Inuyasha was starring off towards the woods to the left of the path. His ears moving as he focused on some distant sound.
“Alright, this is more like it” he said at last and started running in the direction of the woods.
“What…” Kagome started to say but then her less sensitive human ears caught the unmistakable sounds of a battle coming from the woods beyond Inuyasha. The others quickly followed after him.

As they entered the woods they encountered a group of over 20 Oni also moving towards the battle sounds ahead. As soon as the demons saw them however they turned and charged.
“Yea this was just what I needed today” Inuyasha said with a grin and charged to meet them. “IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!”

The battle had been short particularly when the others caught up and joined in. As soon as the Oni were down to a handful, one of them broke and ran heading in the direction of the battle ahead. Inuyasha ran after him leaving the others behind to deal with the rest.
“Inuyasha!” Miroku called after him, “why don’t you help finish these off before you run off.”
As Miroku and Sango battled the remaining Oni, Kigan and Hasai entered the clearing. Kigan frowned and raising his staff started chanting in an obscure language. The crystal atop the staff glowed brighter and brighter until Kigan finishing his spell yelled, “Power of the Staff of Change!”
A beam of light shot forth from the staff and struck Miroku who fell screaming and writhing to the ground.
Sango was just finishing off the last Oni they were battling when she heard Miroku’s cries. Turning she saw the two Oni attacking Miroku.
“Bone Boomerang!” She cried as she flung her weapon at the Oni. Hasai heard her cry and turned to flee the massive weapon. He crashed into Kigan knocking him to the ground and breaking the beam from the staff just as the Bone Boomerang cut Hasai in half. Kigan grabbed his staff and fled.

Sango recovered her weapon and ran to Miroku’s side. The monk was lying face down in the grass with wisps of smoke rising from him.
“Sir Monk are you all right” she said worriedly as she rolled him over. When his face became visible, she screamed.

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Broken Oni bodies lay all around Kit. His bare chest was covered in black Oni ichor and red coyote blood. Early on he had lost the battered remnants of his shirt along with the babelfish charm. Not that it mattered, talking his way out of this was not option and he understood the meaning of the shouted cries of the Oni well enough. He wasn’t in a state for rational conversation anyway. As the hopelessness of fight pressed on him, his rational mind retreated further into the animal blood rage of his coyote blood. ‘Kill, protect mate, kill, protect pup, kill!’ was about the sum of his thoughts at this point.

The surviving Oni were forming up just out of claw reach working up to charge again when a another came running and shouting out of the woods to the right. The others looked at him and then turned and fled to the left. A silver haired, dog eared demon dressed in a red kimono with a sword at his hip came into the clearing to Kit’s right.

Kit picked up the stranger’s scent.
‘An alpha male and a dog at that. Protect mate, protect pup!’ With a snarl Kit charged Inuyasha.