Chapter 7:
Moonless Night
A girl wearing light pink and green kimono entered the tent with a tray of food. She placed it onto the short table and knelt down opposite of him.
“You should eat something.” The girl told him. Her voice was mature and stern, but it hid a sense of gentleness behind it.
“Youkai don’t eat as much as you weak humans do.” The young man, or as he just referred to himself, a youkai, replied rudely. His head was down, his back straight. One hand held down the piece of white paper, while the other held on to a small calligraphy brush. He was thinking and writing at the same time.
“I know that.” The girl answered, unaffected by the young man’s rudeness. “But you’re human tonight.”
The young man stopped writing and looked up. His long black hair was tied back loosely; his violet eyes stared into the girl’s brown ones. He growled, not really meaning any threat, although as a human, he wasn’t doing such a great job.
“You’re tiresome sometimes, Sango.” The young man’s head went back down again as he began to jot down some more words.
“What are you writing?” The girl ignored his comment and asked while propping up her head with her arms.
“Just some stuff.” The young man stopped. He placed the brush behind his ears and began chewing his nails.
“I can’t believe Kouga had the heart to teach you how to write as well.” Sango sounded half amused.
“Don’t mention that wolf’s name in front of me.” The young man grunted in disdain. “You know I hate his guts.”
“But why?”
“You know why.”
Sango scoffed half heartedly. “Just because he works for Naraku?” The young man’s face flinched at the sound of Naraku’s name. “You’re supposed to be fully loyal to him. Why do you hate Naraku so much?” Sango noticed the young man’s eyes traveling to the opening of the tent. “Don’t worry, everyone’s gathered together eating and celebrating. No need to worry about wondering ears.”
“Just because I don’t remember my past before Naraku took me in doesn’t mean I trust everything he says.” The young man growled again. “The wolf told me about Naraku’s so called ‘mission’. I have no interest in slaying innocent humans and youkai. I just want to kill the one who destroyed my family and caused me to lose my memory.”
“But King Taisho died a long time ago.”
“Then I’ll take out his only son, Sesshomaru.” The young man took up the piece of paper he was writing on and started to crumble it up.
But Sango grabbed it from him before he could destroy it. “Hey, don’t mess it up. I want to read it.”
And written on the piece of wrinkled paper were a few lines of an unfinished poem:
‘Heaven and earth endless,
Crowd comes and goes,
Tide rises and falls.
Living in this world,
Aging and dying,
Who can see through it?
Endless turmoil,’
“Hey, Inuyasha, it’s not finished.” Sango asked as she put the paper down. The young man snatched it up and folded it before putting it into the inside of his robes.
“I didn’t know what to write next.” Inuyasha grabbed the bowl of food Sango brought to him and began eating noisily.
“Oh, Inuyasha, by the way, I heard from some of the soldiers that the king of Nazo, Sesshomaru, wasn’t King Taisho’s only son.”
Inuyasha stopped eating and looked up to Sango with some surprise. “What?”
“I heard that when Taisho died, so did his other son. The poor kid drowned or something.” Sango said with some sadness. “He was just a child, probably only a little younger than Kohaku when he…”
Inuyasha grunted and went back to eating. “Don’t worry about it, Sango, I understand. The kid’s dead, might as well, one less person to kill. And about Kohaku and the rest of your family… well, I won’t stand in your way.”
Sango shot him an appreciative look before standing up and heading out. She stopped half way and turned around. “I really hope you can find your past eventually, Inuyasha.”
Inuyasha didn’t look up, he just went on eating. A grunt was all he gave before Sango exited his tent to return to the food tent. He never told her how much he appreciated her presence. But he didn’t have to, she was his only friend, she’d understand.
After he was done with his food, Inuyasha placed the bowl and plate outside of tent. Sango would come later to pick it up for washing. Inuyasha lay down on the ground and kept his eyes open for the rest of the night. His hand continually moved to take out the unfinished poem he wrote earlier and concentrated on what would come next.
Morning came, and he made progress. With a sigh, Inuyasha rose up. He looked at his hands with a smirk. His claws were back. His hair was silver. On top of his head, two dog-like ears moved to the sounds that were surrounding him. Even though he didn’t have a mirror, he knew that his eyes were amber colored once again.
The night without a moon was finally over.
*****That same night*****
Kagome sat down with her back against the wall of the hut. Kaede was sleeping soundly in front of her. It was a moonless night, darkness was over the land. Miroku hasn’t come back. He probably was going to stay in the castle and will return tomorrow along with Kagome’s mother and little brother.
Not far from where Kagome was sitting, a young orange ball of fur curled up next to a little human girl. Kagome watched them, wondering where her cousin Kikyo was.
The bamboo curtain to the hut rose up and Kikyo entered. She looked tired. Without any exchange, Kikyo went to sit down next to Kagome. She closed her eyes and let out an audible sigh.
Kagome rotated her head to look at her cousin. “Kikyo-chan, what’s wrong?”
Kikyo laughed silently. Her face was distorted. “What’s wrong? The question is: what’s right?” She reopened her eyes and looked at Kaede. “We’re in the middle of war, our grandmother is dying. Things aren’t going well in case you haven’t noticed. They’re going wrong, very wrong.”
Kagome flinched at her cousin’s harsh words. “But we still have the Tama, we can’t just give up.”
“What good is the Tama? It killed King Taisho. And it’s killing our grandmother.” Kikyo looked even more serious than usual. “Everything changed ever since that day nine years ago. That flood took everything away from us!”
Kagome bowed her head, remembering that horrible day. Then her gaze turned to the girl and the orange fur ball. “It’s true. The flood took away Uncle Taisho and Inuyasha, but it also gave us Rin and Shippo in return.”
Kikyo scoffed. “Oh, that makes everything so much better. We lost a king and a prince, and gained two orphans that can’t even feed themselves. We should never have picked them up when we saw them near the riverbank.”
“Cousin, how can you say that?” Kagome looked surprised. “Why do you sound so pessimistic? We’ll win the war, cousin, I know we will.”
“We won’t.” Kikyo shook her head sadly. “We’ve got youkai and men. But Naraku has dark miko and powerful weapons. His soldiers were trained for war as soon as they could walk. But Nazo is a peaceful country; we depend on farming and trading to prosper, not warfare. Did you know, Kagome-chan, Naraku has a dark miko called Tsubaki. Tsubaki puts magical barriers around all their human soldiers. None of our youkai warriors can harm them.”
Kagome was now frustrated. “But we have the Tama, don’t we? As long as we have the Tama, we can wish for peace. And they can’t…”
Kikyo shook her head again. “The Tama is still impure. If you make a wish now, you’ll disappear like King Taisho.”
“But I have to try.” Kagome took out the Tama from the inside of her robes; the jewel glimmered though there wasn’t any outside light source. “It’s my responsibility now.”
Kikyo stared at the Tama in Kagome’s palm. Kagura’s words came back to her. I’ve never even touched it. The temptation was too much. One last time, little cousin, you can have it for this one last time.
Date Started: July 28, 2003
Date Finished: July 29, 2003
Word Count: 1403
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