Shin gaped at Kaori the tough girl, bawling her eyes out like a baby. What the…

Around him the bandits looked just as caught offguard by her crying fit as he did. The two brothers shifted on their heels, glancing between themselves. Seichii scowled. Daiji scratched at his bald egg-head.

“Hey, now, little girl,” he said awkwardly. “No need for that.”

Kaori sobbed harder. “Mama…I want my m-m-MAMA…!”

Looking even more uncomfortable, Daiji crouched down onto his big ogre haunches, reaching out to pat her on the head. “There, there—”

All of a sudden Kaori stopped crying. In that same split-second Shin saw her eyes snap up and narrow on Daiji like they’d narrowed on him just before she smacked the fire out of him with her practice sword. Then a bunch of things happened so fast Shin’s human eyes struggled to keep up—Kaori’s forehead smashing into Daiji’s nose, blood spraying everywhere, her foot flying into his chin with a crack, him toppling over backwards while she snatched his dagger from his sash, springboarded sideways off his chest, and lunged at Seichii with the blade out and glinting.

Seichii shrilled like a girl as Kaori tackled him face-first to the ground. The point of the dagger jabbed into the side of his neck. Crouched on his back, she glared around at the other bandits. Juri and Yuuji stared. Daiji lay keeled-over, spewing blood.

“Move an inch,” she warned them, “and I’ll kill him.”

Shin gaped at Kaori all over again—

Too cool!

One of the bandit brothers scoffed, crossing his arms at the chest. “Go on,” he said. “Like I give a shit.”

Seichii whimpered. A bead of blood dribbled down his flinching throat. Looking dazed, Daiji picked himself up from the grass, pinching at his bloody broken nose.

“Nuh…!” he wailed out, honking. “Dun’t!”

Kaori’s eyes cut to Shin. “Go get us one of those horses.”

Shin stiffened.

“No way!” Juri or Yuuji yelled. “The boss’ll flay our asses for that!”

“You should’ve let us leave quietly, then,” Kaori shot back. “That was your mistake.”

The brother who’d yelled started to take a menacing step forward, but Kaori dug in the dagger so it ran red with Seichii’s blood. Big shiny tears welled in his yellow eyes. Daiji wailed like a dying goose again. The bandit brother halted, shaking his head.

“Goddamnit…”

Kaori nodded to Shin. “Go on—do it.”

“Uh…okay,” he said reluctantly, approaching the tied-up horses.

They whinnied and shied as he drew close. Some of the more nervous ones’ eyes even rolled, showing the whites. Shin frowned. He put up his hands and tried to calm them down, knowing it wasn’t much use. Even in his human form, horses were wary of him. Beasts had a way of sensing what he was that humans didn’t.

“Easy, there,” he said to the least skittish one—an older grey mare who huffed at him through her nose but didn’t balk.

Careful not to look her in the eye, he untied her and led her over toward Kaori like he was dragging her through quicksand. He’d almost made it when Daiji honked out a loud bloody sneeze all of a sudden. The mare screamed and reared. Kaori shouted. Shin jumped aside so the horse’s lashing hooves didn’t land square on his head. 

The moment she hit the grass again, the startled horse bolted, crashing and kicking into piles of loot, scattering stuff and bandits everywhere as she galloped headlong toward the trees. Daiji rolled aside so he didn’t get trampled. Juri and Yuuji ran after the horse. Kaori punched Seichii in the throat with the butt of the dagger and then hopped off him, tossing the dagger into the grass while he curled up and choked.

Together she and Shin ran full tilt for the trees in the opposite direction the mare had fled. Shin whooped, thinking they were finally home-free—when out of nowhere he heard a strange whoosh of a sound, and a big weighted net fell over them from above, tripping them and tangling them up. 

They fought to get free, but they only tangled themselves up worse. As Kaori hissed and thrashed like an angry cat, Shin heard the sound of hooves cantering toward them. Through the webbing of the net he saw a group of bandits on horseback approaching, flanking a sharp-eyed young rider who wore a winged helmet on his head. 

One look at this guy and Shin knew without a doubt who he must be. He smiled slow and easy down at Shin as he reined his horse to a stop. 

“Well, well,” the bandit boss said, leaning over his saddle horn, “just what have I caught in my net?”

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

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