[CHAPTERFIC] Mukashibanashi Chapter Two (Inuyasha)
Title: Mukashibanashi [FF.NET Chapter Two] [ Writing Journal Chapter One ]
Pairing: KagomexInuyasha
Rating: PG-13 (For Language)
Genre: Action+Adventure/Romance/Drama/Humor/Alternate Universe
Word Count: 3,169
Summary: [A Tale of Long Ago.] Inuyasha is an ordinary junior high student who has a most extraordinary fifteenth birthday. Pulled into the past, he unseals Kagome, a hanyou who is just looking for some answers. An AU variation on the series.
Note: Omg I updated in less than a week.
Inuyasha’s eyes widened and he gulped deeply as Bachi Hebi’s gaze met his own. When Inuyasha had fought off the serpent in the midst of the blue-black well, he had been limited in his survey of his appearance by the darkness. Now, in the warm mid-morning light, Inuyasha was able to discern that the monster was deep, almost muddy green with scales as big as his hand and a length of at least fifteen meters. The snake’s eyes flashed crimson and it chortled. “There will be no escaping me now, boy. The shikon no tama will be mine alone.” He slithered towards the Goshinboku, and Inuyasha noticed the raw bloody flesh where he had attacked the creature in the well. It had begun to heal, but the fact that the injury still pained him was obvious in the way he slithered; that part of the body, thicker than the rest of it, arched above the ground.
He felt his heart beat pulse in his ears as he glanced to and fro from the serpent to the girl on the tree. The snake was moving at a more sluggish pace due to its injury, but he was by no means slow. “What the fuck do you want?” Inuyasha yelled, his voice shaking. “I don’t even know what a shikon no tama is.”
Bachi Hebi paused, regarding Inuyasha with curiosity and confusion. “You are the keeper of the shikon no tama and you do not understand its power? Surely you lie.”
Inuyasha took this opportunity to take a deep breath and regain his composure, holding on to a small sliver of hope that the monster might listen now. He climbed up a bit further on the roots and stood up straight. “I have no idea what the shikon no tama is. You must have the wrong guy.”
“Oooh,” Bachi Hebi hissed and coiled his tail closer to his upper body. “I know you are the keeper. I can feel it within you. It is unmistakable.”
Pressing one of his hands against the tree root that covered the woman’s torso and chest, Inuyasha felt his attempt at confidence waver. “Keh,” his shaking voice betrayed himself, “you’re saying I have a jewel inside of me?”
The monster serpent was growing impatient but answered him nonetheless. “I don’t have time to answer your questions, boy. The jewel is inside of you, and I will rip you apart to get to it.”
Inuyasha’s hand, coated with sweat, slipped down the root he held himself steady with. He cursed lightly when his palm hit something sharp, presumably the end of a stick peeking out from between the knots of wood. He averted his eyes down to it and saw that it was an arrow, wedged between two adjoining roots. He tugged it very lightly, asserting that it was loose enough for him to pull out. Then he gambled on a split second idea. “Oi. You say there’s a jewel in me. Well where the hell is it then?”
Bachi Hebi shook his head, seemingly amused by his attempt to delay the inevitable. “Can you not feel it? You must be more foolish than I presumed if you cannot feel something of such great power within your own body.”
Closing his eyes, Inuyasha concentrated. If there is something within me, if this guy isn’t bullshitting and just making up an excuse to kill me… I have to find it and hope that I can get to… His train of thought was interrupted by a sudden warmth, pulsing and powerful in his left side. There. He intentionally shut off his mind. He couldn’t afford to doubt what he was about to do, especially when Bachi Hebi had started to slither towards him again.
The arrow came out of the tree with one solid jerk. Inuyasha clenched his eyes shut in anticipation as he aimed it at his left side; thrusting it in at exactly the spot he felt the warmth. The pain was blinding and he bit his lip so hard that he tasted coppery blood within a mere second. As he pulled out the arrow, attempting to ignore the searing pain and the slick blood that covered his hand, he felt something drop into his palm. It was cool and spherical and he exhaled deeply as he closed his fist around it. His plan had hinged on the small chance that the jewel was somewhere he could get to. For the first time, he inwardly thanked his mother for praying for him that morning.
Bachi Hebi had stopped, regarding the human boy and his remarkable audacity. “Dammit, just take it.” Inuyasha held out the jewel, his voice steeped in agony. “I don’t know what the fuck it is and I don’t care, but it’s yours.”
Inuyasha tossed the jewel towards Bachi Hebi.
But it was not the serpent that caught it.
A flash of green and black darted between them. It was quick, but not quick enough that Inuyasha couldn’t tell what it was. So distracted was Inuyasha with the pain, and Bachi Hebi with the jewel, that they had not seen her awaken, and had not noticed her discreetly tearing the roots that held her away.
It was the young woman who had been asleep on the tree. She was nimble and quiet, and caught the jewel before Bachi Hebi could snatch it up.
“Thanks for releasing me.” She looked back at Inuyasha and he observed her. Her eyes were bright blue, alive, vivacious, but unmistakably irritated. “But were you actually about to give the shikon no tama to this youkai?”
“Y-youkai?” It made sense, he pondered as he placed his free hand over his wound. What else would a giant talking snake be? Yet when she said it, he felt like the last shred of reality had fallen out from under him. Hell, judging from the speed in which she moved and the ears on top of her head, the girl reprimanding him wasn’t exactly natural herself. “Who are you?”
“I’m Kagome,” she responded. Kagome wanted to ask him questions, because she had only once before ever been so confused in her life. But now was not the time. Not when Bachi Hebi was sizing her up, considering how to take her out in order to get to the jewel. “I can’t let you have the shikon.” Kagome spoke commandingly, no sign of fear in her voice. Inuyasha couldn’t help but think she was used to encounters like this. “If you leave now, I’ll let you go.”
“OI!” Inuyasha yelled. “He tried to kill me. He’s just going to try and kill someone else. Why the fuck are you going to let him go?” The words had spilled out from his mouth before he could think them through. Nonetheless, the idea that the snake might slither away unharmed infuriated him.
“Neh! I have to give him a chance. It’s only fair,” Kagome snapped.
The serpent uncoiled his tail and hissed angrily. “I will not take orders from you. Do you think I have no pride, hanyou?” He spat the last word as if it were venom.
“So that’s your choice?” Kagome closed her eyes and frowned. The serpent nodded.
“I don’t really care about your pride, but taking the jewel to make yourself more powerful. That’s despicable!” Her voice rose in timbre and she leapt up in the air. Bachi Hebi jerked his head towards her and whipped his tail around, in an attempt to trip her. But
Kagome, petite though she was, was too strong and too fast for the already injured youkai.
Inuyasha thought he heard her mutter something about how she wished she had a weapon as he watched her descend upon the snake. Her claws, which he had hitherto not noticed, were razor sharp and cut through the snake’s scales easily and into its flesh. Kagome had positioned herself perfectly, and Bachi Hebi could do little as she sliced through his neck as if were made of paper, his thin bones not even proving a substantial obstacle.
A moment later, Kagome landed on the ground, Bachi Hebi’s head falling several feet away from her. His body lay motionless behind her.
“Um, are you okay?” Inuyasha spoke softly, leaving the tree behind and approaching her. He couldn’t deny that he found this girl a tad terrifying, but she had just saved his life.
Her shoulders slumped and she lowered her face, her thick black bangs covering her eyes. “I… just want to know what’s going on.”
“Keh! How the hell should I know? I’m sure you have a better idea than me.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked towards her. Her slumped shoulders were shaking now and hot wet tears were falling from her cheeks.
Inuyasha hated crying. He never quite knew how to handle it. There was little that made him more uncomfortable and caused him to feel more helpless than tears. His mother was likely the reason behind that.
Despite that, Inuyasha found a kind of relief in Kagome's tears. Amidst all of the strange, strange things he'd encountered since he entered the well house earlier that morning, he was comforted by the humanity, the normality, of the unusual girl's tears.
He placed his hand on her shoulder, his body acting before his mind registered what he was doing. Kagome flinched.
"Like I said, I don't know anything," he explained, gentler this time. "I have no idea where I am, or what's going on, or who you are, or what you are. I don't even know what a shikon no tama is."
Kagome looked up at him, eyes misty, and for the first time took a moment to really survey the boy, his strange clothing one of the first things she noticed. Although she could sense that he was both frustrated and bewildered, she could also see concern in his expression and in his bright violet eyes. "I'm Kagome."
"Yeah... you already said that." His lips quirked up in a slight smile. "I'm Inuyasha." Kagome blinked a few times. "I know. It's... sort of weird." He rubbed the back of his head.
“It’s not that.” Kagome wiped her eyes and sat down, stretching her legs out on the cool grass. “It’s just ironic.”
“Huh?” Inuyasha sat down next to her, dimly aware of the pain flaring up in his side as he did so.
“Never mind.” She exhaled. “So even though it was inside you, you really have no idea what the shikon no tama is?” Kagome rolled the jewel along her fingers. He shook his head in the negative.
“I don’t really care what it is right now,” Inuyasha responded shortly. “It’s something powerful that a youkai shouldn’t have, okay, that’s enough. I’m more interested in finding out where the fuck I am.”
Kagome bit her lip. “Musashi’s Domain. Did you just wander in or something?”
“Musashi’s Domain?” Inuyasha gestured wildly then hissed in pain. “But I was in Tokyo!”
Kagome gazed at him, nonplussed. “Where’s Tokyo?”
By this point Inuyasha had a sneaking suspicion that it was not that he was not in the where anymore, but he was in fact, not in the when. Inuyasha was still at Dusk Shrine--- that is, before Dusk Shrine existed. Any other day, any other time, he would consider a million and one conclusions before coming to this one. Historical reenactments, a fever induced dream, some bad mushrooms (although Inuyasha hated mushrooms). But after all he had been through, it hardly seemed a stretch. They were after all, having this conversation while sitting beside the corpse of a giant monster snake.
“Time… travel?” He whispered under his breath, scarcely believing the words he was uttering. “Yeah, I’m not from around here. I’m… from another country,” he lied, thinking the girl from the past would scarcely be able to grasp the idea that he was from the future.
She glared at him suspiciously. “Must be a really far away country. I’ve never seen clothes like yours before.”
“Err yeah, it’s really far away.”
“Where?”
“I told you… it’s Tokyo,” Inuyasha countered lamely. “Listen, why are you asking ME all of the questions? You’re the weird one here.”
Kagome gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. “You show up here from nowhere, pull me off of that tree, and have the shikon no tama inside you. I think you’re the odd one out.”
“No way.” Inuyasha pointed at her. “When I pulled out that arrow I released you, right?” Kagome nodded. “You’re asleep on a tree, have an arrow sticking through you, then wake up and decapitate a monster snake with your fingernails.” At this Kagome looked at her bloody nails and embarrassed, wiped them on the grass. “How did you get on that tree anyway?”
“I don’t have to tell you that!” Kagome snapped defensively.
“Did you do something wrong?” He raised his eyebrows, regarding her shocked expression.
“I didn’t do anything!” She cried, smashing her hands onto the grass.
“Keh, if you didn’t do anything why don’t you tell me what happened?” There was a silent pause before Kagome exhaled deeply.
“I was attacked, okay?” She fought back furious tears and gave him a steely glare. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she frowned. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Inuyasha had no reason not to believe her, but doubt niggled at the back of his mind. He tried to push it aside. She had saved his life after all. “Are there… any other human beings around here?”
Kagome stiffened. “Oh I see,” her voice dripped bitterness. “I’ll show you where the nearest village is.”
“That’s not even what I meant at all.” He raised his arms in exasperation and let out a string of curses as the pain in his side hit him full on again. It was severe enough that he didn’t even notice that his arm had throbbed from the action as well.
Kagome stood up swiftly and rounded on him, noticing his blood soaked side and his bandaged arm. She wondered how she hadn’t smelled it, but assumed that the rank stench of Bachi Hebi’s carcass had blocked the scent of his blood out. “You’re injured. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He could hear both anger and worry in her question. “It’s no big deal.” He touched his side gingerly. “I was just preoccupied I guess. Y’know… giant monster snake and all.”
“Neh, it is a big deal. That’s really deep!” She leant down next to him and glanced from the shikon no tama in her palm to his wound, then to the arrow lying by the foot of the Goshinboku. “Wait did you…?”
“I had to get the jewel out to get Bachi Hebi away. I figured it was better me tearing me open than him,” he reasoned with a shrug.
Kagome felt a smile creep across her face. “Idiotic.”
“Keh! It was not.”
“But I suppose if you hadn’t, I’d still be sealed on that tree.” Inuyasha didn’t respond as Kagome took his lower arms and pulled him up off the ground. He struggled against it, but she was far stronger than him.
“…No problem.” He pulled away.
“I’m going to show you where the village is now. They can take care of your wounds.” She began to walk down one of the shady paths, motioning Inuyasha to follow.
He watched her, the mystery of who and what she was striking him. Hanyou, is what Bachi Hebi had referred to her as. Inuyasha wasn’t stupid. The semantics were simple; half youkai. And if she were half youkai… well perhaps that was where the niggling feeling had come from.
“Inuyasha, are you coming?” Kagome yelled back, turning around towards him from the path. Her long black hair caught the breeze and the sunlight that managed to sift through the canopy cast her in a warm and becoming light.
No, she had saved his life and although they had far from gotten along that well in their short period of interaction, she’d done nothing wrong. He thought of her claws making quick work of a fifteen meter serpent and shuddered inwardly. But she was on his side, it seemed. There was no one else for him to trust. “Coming!”
“If your injury is hurting you too much to walk a distance, I can carry you,” she offered. Inuyasha bristled. She was being completely serious, and he had no doubt it would be easy for her to do so.
He flushed, the mental image of her holding him bridal style and running through the woods was pretty much the most humiliating thing he could think of, even if no one else saw it. He took quick steps and caught up to where she was standing within a few seconds. “Keh, are you kidding me?”
“No.” She placed her hands on her hips. “I was just offering.”
Inuyasha “hmmphed,” and the pair began walking towards the village, Kagome in the lead.
The walk was silent, both of them deep in thought, mulling over the bizarre manner in which their lives had changed. Inuyasha caught Kagome rolling the shikon no tama in her hand, and he thought to ask for it back. After all, if it had been inside him, it belonged to him… right? But he couldn’t force himself to care enough to ask at the moment. There was none of the malevolent energy that had oozed from Bachi Hebi coming from Kagome. Whatever the jewel was; whatever power it held, he didn’t feel it unsafe for her to be holding it. He considered how just a minute before he had been wary of her power and now, walking along with her, he felt her completely safe. She was a bundle of contradictions; one moment dangerous, the next, gentle and considerate.
They were at the edge of the village. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t even noticed the forest clearing away and the string of huts dotting the landscape and the crop fields surrounding them just ten or so meters ahead of him.
Kagome cleared her throat. “Right so… we’re at the village now.” Inuyasha nodded. “You might ask for the village miko. She’s generally in charge of dealing with injuries and illness.”
“You’re not coming?” He was surprised by the question spilling out. Kagome’s eyes widened, clearly surprised herself.
“I-I- can’t Inuyasha,” she replied quietly. “Just go by yourself. I’ll… even give you the jewel. If it was inside you, I guess that makes you the guardian of it now.” Kagome began to walk away, her head bowed.
“Wait.” Inuyasha grabbed hold of one of her voluminous sleeves.
“Eh?” She turned around, puzzled. Inuyasha exhaled deeply, as if preparing himself for what he was about to say.
“You’re the only person I know here… and I… don’t want to be alone.” He paused and locked eyes with her, then hurriedly continued. “So would you please come with me?”
Pairing: KagomexInuyasha
Rating: PG-13 (For Language)
Genre: Action+Adventure/Romance/Drama/Humor/Alternate Universe
Word Count: 3,169
Summary: [A Tale of Long Ago.] Inuyasha is an ordinary junior high student who has a most extraordinary fifteenth birthday. Pulled into the past, he unseals Kagome, a hanyou who is just looking for some answers. An AU variation on the series.
Note: Omg I updated in less than a week.
Inuyasha’s eyes widened and he gulped deeply as Bachi Hebi’s gaze met his own. When Inuyasha had fought off the serpent in the midst of the blue-black well, he had been limited in his survey of his appearance by the darkness. Now, in the warm mid-morning light, Inuyasha was able to discern that the monster was deep, almost muddy green with scales as big as his hand and a length of at least fifteen meters. The snake’s eyes flashed crimson and it chortled. “There will be no escaping me now, boy. The shikon no tama will be mine alone.” He slithered towards the Goshinboku, and Inuyasha noticed the raw bloody flesh where he had attacked the creature in the well. It had begun to heal, but the fact that the injury still pained him was obvious in the way he slithered; that part of the body, thicker than the rest of it, arched above the ground.
He felt his heart beat pulse in his ears as he glanced to and fro from the serpent to the girl on the tree. The snake was moving at a more sluggish pace due to its injury, but he was by no means slow. “What the fuck do you want?” Inuyasha yelled, his voice shaking. “I don’t even know what a shikon no tama is.”
Bachi Hebi paused, regarding Inuyasha with curiosity and confusion. “You are the keeper of the shikon no tama and you do not understand its power? Surely you lie.”
Inuyasha took this opportunity to take a deep breath and regain his composure, holding on to a small sliver of hope that the monster might listen now. He climbed up a bit further on the roots and stood up straight. “I have no idea what the shikon no tama is. You must have the wrong guy.”
“Oooh,” Bachi Hebi hissed and coiled his tail closer to his upper body. “I know you are the keeper. I can feel it within you. It is unmistakable.”
Pressing one of his hands against the tree root that covered the woman’s torso and chest, Inuyasha felt his attempt at confidence waver. “Keh,” his shaking voice betrayed himself, “you’re saying I have a jewel inside of me?”
The monster serpent was growing impatient but answered him nonetheless. “I don’t have time to answer your questions, boy. The jewel is inside of you, and I will rip you apart to get to it.”
Inuyasha’s hand, coated with sweat, slipped down the root he held himself steady with. He cursed lightly when his palm hit something sharp, presumably the end of a stick peeking out from between the knots of wood. He averted his eyes down to it and saw that it was an arrow, wedged between two adjoining roots. He tugged it very lightly, asserting that it was loose enough for him to pull out. Then he gambled on a split second idea. “Oi. You say there’s a jewel in me. Well where the hell is it then?”
Bachi Hebi shook his head, seemingly amused by his attempt to delay the inevitable. “Can you not feel it? You must be more foolish than I presumed if you cannot feel something of such great power within your own body.”
Closing his eyes, Inuyasha concentrated. If there is something within me, if this guy isn’t bullshitting and just making up an excuse to kill me… I have to find it and hope that I can get to… His train of thought was interrupted by a sudden warmth, pulsing and powerful in his left side. There. He intentionally shut off his mind. He couldn’t afford to doubt what he was about to do, especially when Bachi Hebi had started to slither towards him again.
The arrow came out of the tree with one solid jerk. Inuyasha clenched his eyes shut in anticipation as he aimed it at his left side; thrusting it in at exactly the spot he felt the warmth. The pain was blinding and he bit his lip so hard that he tasted coppery blood within a mere second. As he pulled out the arrow, attempting to ignore the searing pain and the slick blood that covered his hand, he felt something drop into his palm. It was cool and spherical and he exhaled deeply as he closed his fist around it. His plan had hinged on the small chance that the jewel was somewhere he could get to. For the first time, he inwardly thanked his mother for praying for him that morning.
Bachi Hebi had stopped, regarding the human boy and his remarkable audacity. “Dammit, just take it.” Inuyasha held out the jewel, his voice steeped in agony. “I don’t know what the fuck it is and I don’t care, but it’s yours.”
Inuyasha tossed the jewel towards Bachi Hebi.
But it was not the serpent that caught it.
A flash of green and black darted between them. It was quick, but not quick enough that Inuyasha couldn’t tell what it was. So distracted was Inuyasha with the pain, and Bachi Hebi with the jewel, that they had not seen her awaken, and had not noticed her discreetly tearing the roots that held her away.
It was the young woman who had been asleep on the tree. She was nimble and quiet, and caught the jewel before Bachi Hebi could snatch it up.
“Thanks for releasing me.” She looked back at Inuyasha and he observed her. Her eyes were bright blue, alive, vivacious, but unmistakably irritated. “But were you actually about to give the shikon no tama to this youkai?”
“Y-youkai?” It made sense, he pondered as he placed his free hand over his wound. What else would a giant talking snake be? Yet when she said it, he felt like the last shred of reality had fallen out from under him. Hell, judging from the speed in which she moved and the ears on top of her head, the girl reprimanding him wasn’t exactly natural herself. “Who are you?”
“I’m Kagome,” she responded. Kagome wanted to ask him questions, because she had only once before ever been so confused in her life. But now was not the time. Not when Bachi Hebi was sizing her up, considering how to take her out in order to get to the jewel. “I can’t let you have the shikon.” Kagome spoke commandingly, no sign of fear in her voice. Inuyasha couldn’t help but think she was used to encounters like this. “If you leave now, I’ll let you go.”
“OI!” Inuyasha yelled. “He tried to kill me. He’s just going to try and kill someone else. Why the fuck are you going to let him go?” The words had spilled out from his mouth before he could think them through. Nonetheless, the idea that the snake might slither away unharmed infuriated him.
“Neh! I have to give him a chance. It’s only fair,” Kagome snapped.
The serpent uncoiled his tail and hissed angrily. “I will not take orders from you. Do you think I have no pride, hanyou?” He spat the last word as if it were venom.
“So that’s your choice?” Kagome closed her eyes and frowned. The serpent nodded.
“I don’t really care about your pride, but taking the jewel to make yourself more powerful. That’s despicable!” Her voice rose in timbre and she leapt up in the air. Bachi Hebi jerked his head towards her and whipped his tail around, in an attempt to trip her. But
Kagome, petite though she was, was too strong and too fast for the already injured youkai.
Inuyasha thought he heard her mutter something about how she wished she had a weapon as he watched her descend upon the snake. Her claws, which he had hitherto not noticed, were razor sharp and cut through the snake’s scales easily and into its flesh. Kagome had positioned herself perfectly, and Bachi Hebi could do little as she sliced through his neck as if were made of paper, his thin bones not even proving a substantial obstacle.
A moment later, Kagome landed on the ground, Bachi Hebi’s head falling several feet away from her. His body lay motionless behind her.
“Um, are you okay?” Inuyasha spoke softly, leaving the tree behind and approaching her. He couldn’t deny that he found this girl a tad terrifying, but she had just saved his life.
Her shoulders slumped and she lowered her face, her thick black bangs covering her eyes. “I… just want to know what’s going on.”
“Keh! How the hell should I know? I’m sure you have a better idea than me.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked towards her. Her slumped shoulders were shaking now and hot wet tears were falling from her cheeks.
Inuyasha hated crying. He never quite knew how to handle it. There was little that made him more uncomfortable and caused him to feel more helpless than tears. His mother was likely the reason behind that.
Despite that, Inuyasha found a kind of relief in Kagome's tears. Amidst all of the strange, strange things he'd encountered since he entered the well house earlier that morning, he was comforted by the humanity, the normality, of the unusual girl's tears.
He placed his hand on her shoulder, his body acting before his mind registered what he was doing. Kagome flinched.
"Like I said, I don't know anything," he explained, gentler this time. "I have no idea where I am, or what's going on, or who you are, or what you are. I don't even know what a shikon no tama is."
Kagome looked up at him, eyes misty, and for the first time took a moment to really survey the boy, his strange clothing one of the first things she noticed. Although she could sense that he was both frustrated and bewildered, she could also see concern in his expression and in his bright violet eyes. "I'm Kagome."
"Yeah... you already said that." His lips quirked up in a slight smile. "I'm Inuyasha." Kagome blinked a few times. "I know. It's... sort of weird." He rubbed the back of his head.
“It’s not that.” Kagome wiped her eyes and sat down, stretching her legs out on the cool grass. “It’s just ironic.”
“Huh?” Inuyasha sat down next to her, dimly aware of the pain flaring up in his side as he did so.
“Never mind.” She exhaled. “So even though it was inside you, you really have no idea what the shikon no tama is?” Kagome rolled the jewel along her fingers. He shook his head in the negative.
“I don’t really care what it is right now,” Inuyasha responded shortly. “It’s something powerful that a youkai shouldn’t have, okay, that’s enough. I’m more interested in finding out where the fuck I am.”
Kagome bit her lip. “Musashi’s Domain. Did you just wander in or something?”
“Musashi’s Domain?” Inuyasha gestured wildly then hissed in pain. “But I was in Tokyo!”
Kagome gazed at him, nonplussed. “Where’s Tokyo?”
By this point Inuyasha had a sneaking suspicion that it was not that he was not in the where anymore, but he was in fact, not in the when. Inuyasha was still at Dusk Shrine--- that is, before Dusk Shrine existed. Any other day, any other time, he would consider a million and one conclusions before coming to this one. Historical reenactments, a fever induced dream, some bad mushrooms (although Inuyasha hated mushrooms). But after all he had been through, it hardly seemed a stretch. They were after all, having this conversation while sitting beside the corpse of a giant monster snake.
“Time… travel?” He whispered under his breath, scarcely believing the words he was uttering. “Yeah, I’m not from around here. I’m… from another country,” he lied, thinking the girl from the past would scarcely be able to grasp the idea that he was from the future.
She glared at him suspiciously. “Must be a really far away country. I’ve never seen clothes like yours before.”
“Err yeah, it’s really far away.”
“Where?”
“I told you… it’s Tokyo,” Inuyasha countered lamely. “Listen, why are you asking ME all of the questions? You’re the weird one here.”
Kagome gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. “You show up here from nowhere, pull me off of that tree, and have the shikon no tama inside you. I think you’re the odd one out.”
“No way.” Inuyasha pointed at her. “When I pulled out that arrow I released you, right?” Kagome nodded. “You’re asleep on a tree, have an arrow sticking through you, then wake up and decapitate a monster snake with your fingernails.” At this Kagome looked at her bloody nails and embarrassed, wiped them on the grass. “How did you get on that tree anyway?”
“I don’t have to tell you that!” Kagome snapped defensively.
“Did you do something wrong?” He raised his eyebrows, regarding her shocked expression.
“I didn’t do anything!” She cried, smashing her hands onto the grass.
“Keh, if you didn’t do anything why don’t you tell me what happened?” There was a silent pause before Kagome exhaled deeply.
“I was attacked, okay?” She fought back furious tears and gave him a steely glare. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she frowned. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Inuyasha had no reason not to believe her, but doubt niggled at the back of his mind. He tried to push it aside. She had saved his life after all. “Are there… any other human beings around here?”
Kagome stiffened. “Oh I see,” her voice dripped bitterness. “I’ll show you where the nearest village is.”
“That’s not even what I meant at all.” He raised his arms in exasperation and let out a string of curses as the pain in his side hit him full on again. It was severe enough that he didn’t even notice that his arm had throbbed from the action as well.
Kagome stood up swiftly and rounded on him, noticing his blood soaked side and his bandaged arm. She wondered how she hadn’t smelled it, but assumed that the rank stench of Bachi Hebi’s carcass had blocked the scent of his blood out. “You’re injured. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He could hear both anger and worry in her question. “It’s no big deal.” He touched his side gingerly. “I was just preoccupied I guess. Y’know… giant monster snake and all.”
“Neh, it is a big deal. That’s really deep!” She leant down next to him and glanced from the shikon no tama in her palm to his wound, then to the arrow lying by the foot of the Goshinboku. “Wait did you…?”
“I had to get the jewel out to get Bachi Hebi away. I figured it was better me tearing me open than him,” he reasoned with a shrug.
Kagome felt a smile creep across her face. “Idiotic.”
“Keh! It was not.”
“But I suppose if you hadn’t, I’d still be sealed on that tree.” Inuyasha didn’t respond as Kagome took his lower arms and pulled him up off the ground. He struggled against it, but she was far stronger than him.
“…No problem.” He pulled away.
“I’m going to show you where the village is now. They can take care of your wounds.” She began to walk down one of the shady paths, motioning Inuyasha to follow.
He watched her, the mystery of who and what she was striking him. Hanyou, is what Bachi Hebi had referred to her as. Inuyasha wasn’t stupid. The semantics were simple; half youkai. And if she were half youkai… well perhaps that was where the niggling feeling had come from.
“Inuyasha, are you coming?” Kagome yelled back, turning around towards him from the path. Her long black hair caught the breeze and the sunlight that managed to sift through the canopy cast her in a warm and becoming light.
No, she had saved his life and although they had far from gotten along that well in their short period of interaction, she’d done nothing wrong. He thought of her claws making quick work of a fifteen meter serpent and shuddered inwardly. But she was on his side, it seemed. There was no one else for him to trust. “Coming!”
“If your injury is hurting you too much to walk a distance, I can carry you,” she offered. Inuyasha bristled. She was being completely serious, and he had no doubt it would be easy for her to do so.
He flushed, the mental image of her holding him bridal style and running through the woods was pretty much the most humiliating thing he could think of, even if no one else saw it. He took quick steps and caught up to where she was standing within a few seconds. “Keh, are you kidding me?”
“No.” She placed her hands on her hips. “I was just offering.”
Inuyasha “hmmphed,” and the pair began walking towards the village, Kagome in the lead.
The walk was silent, both of them deep in thought, mulling over the bizarre manner in which their lives had changed. Inuyasha caught Kagome rolling the shikon no tama in her hand, and he thought to ask for it back. After all, if it had been inside him, it belonged to him… right? But he couldn’t force himself to care enough to ask at the moment. There was none of the malevolent energy that had oozed from Bachi Hebi coming from Kagome. Whatever the jewel was; whatever power it held, he didn’t feel it unsafe for her to be holding it. He considered how just a minute before he had been wary of her power and now, walking along with her, he felt her completely safe. She was a bundle of contradictions; one moment dangerous, the next, gentle and considerate.
They were at the edge of the village. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t even noticed the forest clearing away and the string of huts dotting the landscape and the crop fields surrounding them just ten or so meters ahead of him.
Kagome cleared her throat. “Right so… we’re at the village now.” Inuyasha nodded. “You might ask for the village miko. She’s generally in charge of dealing with injuries and illness.”
“You’re not coming?” He was surprised by the question spilling out. Kagome’s eyes widened, clearly surprised herself.
“I-I- can’t Inuyasha,” she replied quietly. “Just go by yourself. I’ll… even give you the jewel. If it was inside you, I guess that makes you the guardian of it now.” Kagome began to walk away, her head bowed.
“Wait.” Inuyasha grabbed hold of one of her voluminous sleeves.
“Eh?” She turned around, puzzled. Inuyasha exhaled deeply, as if preparing himself for what he was about to say.
“You’re the only person I know here… and I… don’t want to be alone.” He paused and locked eyes with her, then hurriedly continued. “So would you please come with me?”