Kaya's Story (An InuYasha Fanfic)

Chapter 92: A Trap for Lady Kikyo

Several days have passed since our battle with Naraku at the border between this world and the next. We had stopped to rest partially because InuYasha decided to go look for Lady Kikyo, alone. It wasn't something he had come out and said though, so our current situation was pretty tense. "I'm going for a walk and don't worry I'm not going very far," I told the group. Kagome just nodded along with the others, so I left. To be honest, I just didn't want to be in that situation anymore. Tense situations were not something I liked being a part of, so avoidance was my answer. I walked until I found a tree several trees out of sight and began daydreaming, which was a mistake. All of my thoughts kept going to Ryu and how much I had missed him in the past couple of months. It hurt more when I thought back to my 'fight' with Chiyoko and how much I wanted to stay with Ryu, no matter what. I guess I knew a little bit about how Kagome was feeling, right now. My thoughts were interrupted by InuYasha's scent, meaning he was back. I ran back to where everyone was just in time to see InuYasha drop kick Shippo into the next village. I was so focused on Shippo that I missed what happened until I was face-first in the ground. She was lecturing InuYasha, as usual. Although by the sound of the conversation, I wasn't sure he deserved it this time. Once that was over and Kagome had calmed down a bit, we continued on our journey.

We hadn't been traveling very long when we encountered a boy and an old man riding a horse, trying to escape something. As they got closer, that something was a hoard of demon rats. InuYasha attacked the hoard of rats only to have them multiply right before our eyes. Sango called them Zushinezumi and said they could be killed by a poisonous gas that we didn't have the ingredients for; so Miroku improvised by using his wind tunnel to suck up the rats. After it was over, we began talking with the old man and little boy. The man explained their village had been attacked by the rats and he and his grandson were the only ones to survive because they had been in the mountains nearby. When the man was finished, Kagome asked Sango about the Zushinezumi and she explained that there was a main rat who was their leader and released the smaller rats from a shrine he carried on his back. She also told us that the leader only released them to kill what he could eat, like small groups of humans or animals. That part confused me too, normally the demon rats don't attack full villages, just random travelers, or large animals. I wondered if there was something else going on because their scent, distant as it may have been, was steadily getting stronger signaling there were more. We decided to investigate and sent the man and his grandson on out of harm's way. After the two were gone, we took off in the direction of the scent of demon rats.

When we caught up the rats, they had devoured most of the region. I got the honor of babysitting duty while Miroku and Sango took Kirara to get a better look at the situation. Honestly, all I did was half pay attention to Shippo and InuYasha's argument, that is until I heard buzzing and Kagome got InuYasha's attention. Three saimyosho were flying not far outside the barrier we were in. A moment later, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara returned and destroyed the saimyosho in the process. That meant Naraku was behind this somehow, but I didn't understand his motive until Miroku said something about drawing someone out into the open. InuYasha and I had the same thought at the same time, Naraku was trying to lure out Lady Kikyo. I hoped she wasn't that stupid as to play into his tricks, but if she didn't I had the feeling a lot more people would die. It wasn't long after this conversation that we noticed the rats were forming a single line and heading for a singular location. Miroku's theory was that someone had cast a Mayose, my guess was that was exactly what Lady Kikyo did. I also guessed she wouldn't stick around, but that was a thought I kept to myself. We divided into two teams, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara went to find the source shrine while the rest of us headed for the Mayose. Halfway through the journey, I regretted not going with the other group, I wish Shippo had a filter. As we ran, we spotted a small group of villagers that Shippo was able to free by scattering the rats using a fox magic 'firebomb'. Once the villagers were out of danger we continued until we found a huge tree that led into the clouds and maybe even higher. This was Lady Kikyo's Mayose and it was very effective because the rats were disappearing. We stood there and watched the rats go up the tree and out of sight. Even as close as we were, the rats completely ignored us because they were so focused on getting to the tree. Our observation was interrupted by giant demonic slugs being thrown onto the tree by Hakudoshi. I figured it wouldn't be Naraku directly, Hakudoshi was his best bet considering what happened last time. That also meant I couldn't let Hakudoshi or Naraku get the satisfaction of watching the tree fall. InuYasha must've thought the same thing because he began to advance on Hakudoshi, that is until Shippo pointed out he couldn't use the wind scar causing InuYasha to pause and retort. Kagome and I began firing spiritual arrows at the demon slugs causing them to disintegrate. When Hakudoshi threatened the villagers, we had saved earlier and began to leave, InuYasha used his wind scar and destroyed Hakudoshi's body just before he disappeared. The rats had started acting differently because the spiritual power of the tree was weakening, I could feel it. During the time it took us to kill the slugs, the Mayose died causing the rate to attack the slugs InuYasha had cut off. The rats then began coming after us so InuYasha had Shippo transform. We climbed on and began heading back in the direction Sango and Miroku had gone. All of a sudden InuYasha jumped down, that's when I caught the scent too and followed him. I had a bad feeling about what was happening.

When we reached Sango and Miroku, a spiritual arrow came out of nowhere destroying the barrier that protected the shrine of the demon rats. With one swing of his sword, InuYasha destroyed the shrine causing all of the demon rats to disappear. We looked up and saw Lady Kikyo, just before she left without a word. We ran to Sango who had been injured pretty badly by the demon rats because she had protected Kohaku, who supposedly was controlling the rats. I honestly don't think he had a choice. It was either follow orders or you die or get tortured. That's not something I could convince Sango of right now though because right now we needed to fix up hers and Miroku's wounds. I helped Kagome with tending to Miroku and Sango when we found a spot for the night. Sango was more hurt emotionally than physically and we all felt bad for her and wished we could ease that pain in some way. For now, we could just let her sort out her feelings and heal.