One Shot 36
Title The Last Ride of the Inutachi
Author landofthekwt
Rating K
Prompt " Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" Napoleon Bonaparte
Word Count 1210
POV Kohaku
Warning none
Summary The inutachi help Kohaku clean up Sekigahara and remove the taijiya from history
They were the sweepers. The ones who cleaned up after the daiymos,shoguns and samurai who littered this era with dead bodies. Kohaku and his taijiya did not fight the battles They were hired to kill the youkai created by the batles. The dead souls, the hunger for death all combined to create monsters hungry for more death.
They were the gravediggers. The ones who swept the battle field clean after the samurai were done collecting their heads. Kohaku had always been taught you should honor your enemy and appease his soul so that he would not haunt you. Instead, he saw trophy hunting bu those who supposedly had honor. The losers left to rot headless on the field. the
The taijiya were not enough for Sekigahara. Sango and Miroku were over 60 but they came. With Hiraikotsu and shokaju sweeping the youkai before them Kohaku had not seen them in battle for some time, but Hiraikotsu still responded to Sango's call. Still it strained her. She left most of the battle to the twins and their children.
They had hoped for Lord Sesshoumaru to come,but the West was unsettled after it lost at Sekigahara. He could not leave until Tokugawa decided who would lost their kingdoms. It was clear that the taiyoukai intended to shut himself up in the Western Shiro and ignore the time of men, They could have used Tenseiga to clear those not of this world and Bakusaiga to clear the rest in one fell swoop. Not even Rin could move him.
To clear the hordes they had to use Tessaiga combined with Kagome's arrows to produce a lethal cocktail. When they were done, the battle fiield was pure again. The dead were simply gone. Sent to hell by means of the Meidou. Miroku was left to bless the site as well as he could to pacify the area. It was the best they could do under the circumstances.
Kohaku could care less for Tokugawa. Kagome told him who would win and he allied witht the winners accordingly to ensure the survival of the taijiya. Hew as most concerned with the youkai Naraku affected him deeply. The Avatar of Hell used the hordes of lesser youkai to produced byt the Feudal Era battles to enhance himself by absorbing them. If he needed more youkai he would simply send the monsters out to the villages to create more.
Kohaku was determined that all the lesser youkai should die. hence the need for a clean up crew to take of the battlefields. No more lesser youkai would be created. Kagome assured him that only one major battle would occur in the next 250 years Musushito would have to handle the dead of Osaka He was sure that he would be dead by then.
Shiori used her barrier to protect them when they were not in battle. Sango, Miroku and Kagome were all over sixty and looked itEven Kohaku was in his late fifties. He was not the boy he was at eleven Able to kill whole villages. He was not youkai exterminator of his teens Redeeming himself by fighting the monsters his master loosed on the unsuspecting world.
Now he was the leader of the taijiya directing his troops from the safety of Shiori's barrier. Musushito and his men did the mopup work after Inuyasha swept the field clean. No youkai would escape. When he reported to Tokugawa he would be able to stand proudly knowing that he had done his part n creating the New Japan.
When the last soldier left, Kohaku left. He had much work to do. Now that they lesser youkai were gone the taijiya must disappear from history. Their village would appear to be deserted The taijiya themselves would disperse across Japan. They would become invislble like the ninja. The youkai had destroyed the village the first time. They were no longer the problem
The problem was the shogun. He had systematically wiped out his enemies. Even his frriends had been placed in positions where they could be watched. Tokugawa was not a man to be trusted. Kagome told him how he would kill the rest of Hideyoshi's family in the sack of Osaka. If he decided the taijiya were dangerous. they would disappear.
Kohaku must beat him to the punch. The taijiya must disappear before Tokugawa made them disappear Fox magic could make the village appear deserted. Records of their existence could be destroyed. No more contracts for youkai extermination. No more recruitment. Everything must be done in secret so that the taijiya would leave no trace that they had ever been here.
He set to work with the Inutachi. Shippou was skilled now. Skilled enough to make a village disappear. The taijiya were scattered. All records kept in their heads. Those records of the taijiya contracts disappeared. Memories could not be altered, but memories could fade over time.
Only Musushito need know everything. Kohaku knew that soon he would fade. His son would be around for at least another three hundred years. The future would be entrusted to him. Just as the youkai would fade their exterminators would do the same. Kohaku would not live to see that day, but he had prepared Musushito for that day.
He hoped that Musushito would pass his legacy on to his son, but he did not seem so inclined. It was soon clear that Musushito would never marry. No sons or graandsons would be there to pass the torch. Kohaku mourned. Today the village would disappear. No more training. No more missions.
The taijiya had dispersed to far flung posts across Japan From these posts they would protect humans from youkai. Kohaku was not ready to abandon his mission. He just wanted to eliminate the vulnerability he felt in his father's fort. His father probably never foresaw the day that the youkai would exact vengance, but he did. Everything had a price.
The price the taijiya paid was to live in fear of the day that the ones they killed would come back for them. It was only a matter of time. For him it was too late. He only hoped that no one else would have to suffer for his atonement It was enough that he had rebuilt the taijiya village The taijiya did not need to die for him.
The last memorial was the graves of the taijiya Only he and Sango were present as she laid flowers on their graves. Even if Sango was not there for the annual service she and Kohaku would always remember them as long as they lived. Musushito and Sango's children would meet to remember them every year.
With those prayers the Inutachi departed knowing that they had seen the last of the taijiya Sango hugged Miroku. It was sad to see the end of an era, but she knew the time had come for it to end. As war faded so did the violent youkai who grew out of the chaos of war. Peace would bring its own problems. There was no place for the taijiya in the new age. In the end only Musushito would be there to tend the graves until at last he passed on.