Future
Chapter 5:
Future
*****Later that day on the borders of Nazo and some foreign lands*****
A fancy carriage was resting next to a riverbank. Its four beautiful manes chewed on the grass happily. A small flank of trained soldiers sat on the ground, resting their feet. Inside the carriage, a man with long black hair and a woman sat opposite of each other.
“Naraku-sama, you shouldn’t have sent a youkai to do the job. He can’t be trusted.” The woman was apparently very angry.
“Nonsense, Tsubaki,” The man called Naraku stared her with an evil grin. “Kouga is the fastest of all the youkai here, he’ll be back soon with the news we need.”
The woman inhaled deeply, trying to keep her rage down. “That’s not what I meant, Naraku-sama. I don’t doubt Kouga’s speed, but he’s a youkai! I do not trust a youkai to spy on the enemy for us.”
Naraku laughed. “Why, do you think Kouga will betray us just because we persecute youkai? No, no, he wants power, and I’ll give him power once he proves himself loyal to me.” Naraku raised the curtain of the carriage window. “Besides, Kouga blames the Inu family for exiling the wolf clan out of Nazo. He hates Taisho much more than he hates us.”
The woman crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Still, Naraku-sama, if your goal is to rid the world of youkai, why do you keep youkai under your arms is still a mystery to me.”
“We’re talking about eliminate all youkai here,” He gazed at the woman disappointedly, “we can’t just depend on dark miko like you, any outside help is welcome.”
“Oh, just like how you keep Kagura and Kanna?”
Naraku raised an eyebrow. He leaned forward and placed his white, thin hand under the woman’s chin and raised her head. “Jealous, my lovely?”
But before the woman had a chance to answer, a commotion was started outside. All the soldiers were shouting “Kouga’s back”.
Naraku and the dark miko stepped out of the carriage, facing a grinning Kouga. “Good news, I perceive?” Naraku asked.
“Very good news.” Kouga paused for suspense. “The old Taisho’s gone.”
The shock on Naraku and the dark miko’s faces were impossible to describe. “What? How?”
“Well, I posed as a hunter that was traveling through the village Mura, and waited for Taisho and his family to come out. But Mura has been flooded, the rain was horrible.” He pointed that out by squeezing out some water from his fur. He went on explaining how the flood devastated Mura, and how King Taisho made a wish on a pink ball and all the water went away, but Taisho vanished with the water.
“Wait, a pink light, you say?” The dark miko asked in a hurry.
“Yea, and it was bright too, surrounded the old dog and a little girl.”
“A little girl?” She echoed.
But before she can go further pondering on that subject, Naraku cut in. “You don’t think old Taisho would’ve used the jewel, would he? He should know better.”
The miko sighed. “It’s definitely the power of the Tama. Only it wasn’t purified yet, and it took Taisho as a trade for subside the flood.”
“And another thing,” Kouga wasn’t interested in a jewel; this was probably the best day in his life. His old nemesis gone, and… “Taisho’s hanyou son was drowned by the flood. They couldn’t find his body; I think the boy’s probably dead.”
It’s a day full of surprises. “What? You mean that little hanyou Inuyasha’s gone too?” Naraku burst out laughing. “Brilliant! Absolutely wonderful! So now all it remains of the Inu royal family is a 13-year-old youkai boy who can’t even use his powers fully, and a weak human queen!”
“Don’t forget, they still have the Tama, Naraku-sama.” The woman reminded him. “As long as they have that Tama and a pure miko to protect them, we can’t attack.”
Naraku knew that. But he pretended not have heard her. He wasn’t going to let anyone rain on his parade, although rain was what had made him so happy in the first place.
Suddenly a soldier yelled out. “Naraku-sama, we found two bodies by the river!”
"Bodies? Dead?”
“No sir, both just unconscious. One is a human boy, six or seven years old or so, the other…”
“Yes?”
“The other looks like an inu-hanyou, not very old either.”
Naraku’s attention was now intrigued. Can’t be… He thought to himself. “Bring them here!”
Soon two soldiers carried the two bodies to Naraku. They were just little boys, drenched with water.
“Wake them up.” Naraku commanded the dark miko, and himself took a seat on a large boulder.
The dark miko took out some powder out of a pouch a spread them over the boys’ faces, they both woke up instantly, sneezing because of the powder.
“Who are you?” Naraku asked them.
“I’m… Hojo… from Mura.” The human boy answered first, still sneezing. “Where am I? Where’ Kagome-chan? And Kaede-sama?”
“He knows Kaede, the old miko.” The dark miko whispered to Naraku. “And he’s from Mura, he could have very valuable information for us.”
Naraku sniffed and whispered back, “I know that.” Without answering Hojo’s questions, he turned to the hanyou boy. Although he already guessed the answer, he still wanted to be sure.
“And you, hanyou?”
The hanyou boy looked dazed, out of place. He looked up at Naraku’s voice. “Hanyou… dare wa hanyou?”
Naraku sneered. “Who’s a hanyou? You! Now tell me, what’s your name? Who are your parents? Where did you come from?”
The hanyou boy looked back down to the ground. “My name…” He whispered very lightly, “I… don’t know…” He began to panic. “Who… am I?”
Hojo turned to look at him. “Inuyasha-sama? What’s wrong?”
The sound of the hanyou boy’s name reached Naraku’s ears and confirmed his suspicions. “Memory loss?” He whispered to the dark miko and saw her nod in a very serious manner.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha has already grabbed Hojo’s shoulders and began shaking him. “Inuyasha? Is that my name? Do you know me? Who am I?!”
“Inuyasha-sama, don’t you remember me? I’m Hojo, Kagome-chan’s friend.” Hojo looked at the hanyou prince in surprise.
“Kagome… I don’t know her… What’s wrong with me?!?” Inuyasha let go of Hojo’s shoulders and stood up, he started to run around in a wild manner.
“Stop him!” Naraku commanded him. A bunch of soldiers went for Inuyasha at once, but by the time they finally pinned him to the ground, Inuyasha has fainted once again.
“Inuyasha-sama!” Hojo yelled out to him.
“He’ll be fine, Hojo-kun.” Naraku walked over to the dirty human boy on the ground. He smirked evilly inwardly, already forming a plan. “But I have some bad news for you, Hojo-kun. Your village, Mura, and your parents and friends… they didn’t survive from the flood… we rescued you, but we could do nothing else for them.”
“What…” Hojo was shocked. “But… Okaasan… Otoosan… Kagome-chan… they’re all… dead?”
Naraku nodded with fake sorrow. “I’m very sorry to be the one to tell you this.”
Hojo started to weep. “It’s… not your fault… thank you, sir, for saving me, but there was nothing you could do, I’m just…”
“Oh, you poor boy, it’s going to be okay.” Naraku began to smile, “And don’t call me sir, my name is Naraku, king of the country Onigumo. But I hope you’ll call me otoosan one day, because I want you to be my son. I have no children, and since I saved you, I’ll take full responsibility for you.”
Hojo looked up in surprise, his weeping has stopped. “You’re mostly kind, sir. But… what about Inuyasha-sama?”
Naraku put on a fake concerned expression. “I will take responsibility for him too, for he can’t go back now that his family is also gone. But the people of my country fear youkai.”
“But Inuyasha-sama is just a hanyou, and he'd never hurt anyone.”
“I know that.” Naraku sighed. “But I’ll tell you this, I’ll raise him to be a soldier, fight for our country, and he’ll be well taken care of.”
Hojo stood up. “Okay then, will I get to see him?”
“That’s another problem. If you’re going to be the prince of our country, you have to be careful not to come close to any youkai. It will jeopardize both you and Inuyasha-kun’s life, understand?”
Hojo nodded, wiping away the tear on his face.
“Alright, why don’t you go into the carriage, we’ll be back in my castle soon.”
“I’ll miss my family though.”
“Well, on our way back, you can tell me all about Mura and your friends. Now go inside the carriage.” Hojo followed Naraku’s order obediently and went to sit in the carriage.
“Naraku-sama, what are you planning?” After watching Hojo get inside the carriage, the dark miko approached Naraku with a puzzled expression.
Naraku laughed but didn’t answer right away. He first turned to Kouga and pointed a finger at the unconscious hanyou. “I want you to train him, Kouga, brainwash him. In seven years, I want him to think of the Inu family as his worst enemies. I want him to be a soldier, with absolute loyalty toward me, understand?”
Though Kouga didn’t like the idea of teaching Taisho’s son everything he knew, he had no choice but nod.
“This Hojo boy, he’s close to the miko Kaede, and now apparently the royal family.” Naraku rubbed his palms together. “He can tell us details about Mura and even the capital Kira that any good spy can gather, without the risk of putting one of our men in danger.”
“Naraku-sama, we found this on the hanyou boy.” One of the soldiers ran to Naraku, showing him a fan-shaped jade pendent.
Naraku looked at it and scoffed. “Let him keep it. It’s probably just a piece of jewelry.”
“Naraku-sama, Kouga mentioned something about a little girl also being surrouned by the Tama’s light, I think…”
Naraku raised his hand to silence the dark miko. “You worry too much, Tsubaki, it’s just a little girl. In ten years, no, not even ten, I will be able to take over Nazo. And these two boys, will be the keys.”
Date Started: July 14, 2003
Date Finished: July 14, 2003
Word Count: 1702
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