Inuyasha: Girl Lost In Time

Chapter 19: The Tainted Shard

The air is filled with the nasty mix of ink and decay; aromas that clash with the beautiful blue sky but are the result of a battlefield that lays before us. Stepping to the border of the battlefield is painful for my senses; my nose burns, my eyes sting, and I can practically taste the inky scent in the air, making me almost gag. Crows scatter up into the sky, cawing at our approach now that we've interrupted their feastings on the newly killed corpses. Keeping behind Inuyasha with Shippo close to my right, I hope that his body mass will prevent some of the stench from hitting me when a breeze starts up, but it doesn't. Immediately, a headache throbs from the smell. The monk, Miroku, is still with us, having traveled along the roads by our side for now, but for no apparent reason. Inuyasha and him, having been doing nothing but murmuring insults at one another all day, leaving me wondering why he went in the same direction as us.

"This was no battle. Something's not right. No blood, I can't pick up the scent of it," says Inuyasha. He tilts his head towards the sky and sniffs the air. Only a displeased and confused expression is left.

"It must be the work of some demon. And a very strong one, to have wrought this destruction. Which means, it could possess a shard of the shikon jewel." A sly smile crosses Miroku's face.

"We're not teaming up with you, or sharing any jewel shards!" Inuyasha growls at the grinning monk.

"So, each man for himself?"

"Yes, exactly!" Inuyasha scowls.

"Then I shall take my leave of you now, better for us to compete from afar," the monk turns on his sandals and heads down the hilly field to our right, which is still the general direction we are heading in. We're going to run into him again, I can tell.

"Should we just be letting him leave?" Shippo asks.

Inuyasha has the right to be pushing Miroku away; this time period is surrounded in battle, war, conflict and betrayals, and to just entrust someone who just stole from us, to travel with us, may be a little dangerous. But then again, to let a human just walk off in search of a powerful demon has me worrying a bit. Sure, he has that unusual wind tunnel thing in his hand, but who knows how powerful this demon is and whether it'd get affected by his ability.

"Help! Demon!" Screams someone from the other side of a short cliff. When we look back, Inuyasha is nowhere in sight, leaving us to turn toward the still screaming man. We reach the cliff in seconds, peering down to spot Inuyasha with a man gripped in one hand and a scroll in the other.

"Inuyasha!" I yell, placing both hands on my hips as I glare down at the pesky demon.

He releases the man, letting him go tumbling to the ground, and throws the scroll at him. "The ink smells familiar. The same smell of ink as the battlefield. I can track the source and it'll lead us to the demon."

Ink. It is unusual that the smell of ink is mixed in with the smells of battle, and there were significant amounts of stains that weren't blood all over the ground. Could those have been ink? Inuyasha climbs up the cliff to us.

"Okay, let's get going then." I reply.

-***-

We walk up a slope that the road leads us over, with a river to our left and a cliff side to our right. Above us, the sunsets on the horizon, casting oranges, yellows, pinks and purples, giving way to a beautiful sight. Suddenly, Inuyasha sniffs the air and rushes ahead of us, leaving Shippo and me behind as we make our way to the top of the hill. He disappears over it, and once he does, we hear another scream coming from the other side. That is also a male. Shippo and I look at one another and roll our eyes; we've been at this all day. Reaching the top of the hill, in no hurry since we've lost the care to help those he's been bullying. We spot him, yet with another man, in his grip. The guy is little, scrawny and wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt, with blue baggy pants with a scroll in his hand. He squirms pathetically in Inuyasha's grip. And when he does, my eyes follow the scroll.