"Over here, over here!"
Kagome stood in the middle of the path, waving her arms wildly. Her denim shorts and bare legs dusty, her black sneakers grey with dust. Her long black hair and blue T-shirt were likewise dusty - she looked almost as if she had been dipped in a brown flour.
Up the path, within the village, the preying mantis demon turned, hissing at her, red insect eyes gleaming.
Overhead, the clouds were gathering.
This one wasn't as tall as the other one, it was only the same height as the hut. The larger one was back in the forest, being dispatched by InuYasha. This smaller one had come into the village, unseen, and was now threatening the hut. A terrified mother and two screaming infants were hiding inside, cowering.
"Arrgh, if I only had time for my bow!"
She reached into her shirt, and pulled out the Shikon, holding it in her hand.
There was a soft pulse in her hand, as if she held something alive.
Kagome imagined something happening to one of it's legs, cracking, falling off, something, anything.
In front of her, the dark brown mantis suddenly screamed as a large crack appeared in it's chitinous body armor. Black ichor spurted out.
"Yeah!"
The mantis hissed at her again, and lumbered around the hut, starting towards her.
"Come on," Kagome put her hands to her mouth, yelling louder, "A slug could outrun you, move, move!"
All I have to do is lure it back to where InuYasha is. Easy enough. It's not that fast.
The mantis took several steps, unable to go very fast on it's injured leg.
Kagome grinned, and turned, moving several steps up the path, "Slowpoke! Whoo-hoo! Come on!"
The mantis crouched, levelling out it's body slightly. Suddenly, the long plates on it's back rose, and four huge, gossamer-looking wings slid out, and started to vibrate.
Kagome backed up a step, eyes huge, her voice cracking, "Mantis have WINGS!?"
It took to the air.
Shrieking, she turned, running along the path, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
It made a terrible clattering sound as it moved, it's wings clicking against each other, bearing down on her, hissing.
"Oh God oh God oh God! INUYASHA! AHHHHHHHH!"
She turned a corner, and he was there, running towards her.
Seeing the giant thing bearing down on her, his eyes widened, and he pulled the Tetsusaiga.
"Kagome! Down!"
She threw herself to the ground as hard as if she had been sat, just as he jumped, launching himself into the air.
She saw stars as her chin bounced off the grass, and she threw her arms over her head. Above and behind her, she heard InuYasha roar, and a sudden, sickening squishy, splattering sound.
Kagome was suddenly drenched in something hot and foul smelling.
She was afraid to open her eyes, she didn't want to see what had fallen on her. Eyes squeezed shut, she held her breath.
"Kagome? Kagome!" She felt him grab her wrist, and start pulling her up, "Look at me! Are you ok?"
Warily, she opened her eyes.
He stood, looking at her, golden eyes wide, "Are you hurt?"
Steeling herself, she looked down.
She was covered in black ichor. It was hot, and it stank. It literally made her eyes water.
She tried to speak, could only manage a long sickly whimper.
"Kagome!?"
"I'm...ok..." she managed, trying to breathe through her mouth, "Not..hurt. I...oh God-"
She shoved him away, startling him, and lunged to the side of the road, where she fell to her knees. InuYasha was right behind her, reaching for her, convinced she had been badly wounded, when she started to retch.
InuYasha winced, flattening his ears, oddly defensive, "I couldn't exactly worry about getting you dirty, Kagome! That thing would have eaten you!"
"It's...ok..." she gasped, dry-heaving, "Not...angry...uuuggggg."
He stood slightly behind her, unsure what to do.
Kagome fought her stomach back into control, embarrassed he was watching her. Give a girl some privacy when she's about to puke! But she had only dry-heaved, and finally stood, shuddering, weak. She turned, and looked at him.
InuYasha blinked, and suddenly smiled a little. She looked embarrassed, red-faced.
He shrugged, walking towards her a step, voice gentle, "Big deal."
"Can't you smell it?!" she asked, shuddering, "You can smell everything!"
He shook his head, "I can smell that it stinks, yeah, but it's still not as bad as that other stuff I've had on me. Come on, let's go back to the village, get you washed up."
"EErrrrg. No. I'm going straight to the river. I don't think I can go as far as the village. And I don't think the villagers will want me there, either."
He looked at her, exasperated, "You don't even have any towels."
"Then you go bring me some. Please? Before I do vomit?"
He sighed, a little annoyed, but she looked so miserable.
"Alright. Go wash. I'll bring your backpack and stuff."
"Thanks, InuYasha."
It was a short trip back to the hut, picking up Kagome's backpack, and bringing it out to the river for her. She stayed almost completely submerged while he put her backpack on the riverbank, then turned and sat, back-on to her.
He was tempted, yes. But he was far too visible to her. There was no way he could look without her seeing, and a part of him didn't want to even risk it. Besides, she was feeling sickly.
He heard her splash back to the bank, rummage in her backpack for soap, and wade back out. InuYasha, unseen by her, smiled, remembering the day he had accidentally seen her bathing.
She had been such a thing to behold. Pale skin, long black hair spread out in the water, eyes closed, hands in her hair...
He chuckled, I've got it bad.
And he didn't care.
"Well well well," came a voice by his ear, "The Lady Kagome looks...lovely today."
InuYasha blinked, and reached out, snagging Myoga off a nearby branch.
"Yeah, and you can stop ogling her, right now."
"Er...I wasn't doing any such thing, Lord InuYasha! I was just-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"I'm glad I saw you here, my Lord. I wanted to ask you something very important."
InuYasha put the flea on his knee, crossing his arms, "Oh yeah?"
"Yes. What on earth has happened to the Lady Izumi?"
InuYasha blinked, then looked away, into the forest to the right of him.
"Yeah," he said, his voice suddenly quiet, "I guess you haven't heard."
"Oh?"
"I think...it's my fault, Myoga. I shouldn't have tried to close that portal. I know Kagome says my powers couldn't have hurt her, but...that's the only thing I can see."
"Well...I don't know, Lord InuYasha. Lady Izumi is unbelievably powerful. Something terrible must have happened to her."
InuYasha sighed, and closed his eyes, "Yeah. A burning mountain fell out of the sky. I saw it, Myoga. Kagome called it a...meteor, or something. It hit the island where Izumi was."
"That's terrible!"
InuYasha opened his eyes, gazing down at his hands, "I...I'm kind of surprised...how much I miss her."
"Well, Lord InuYasha...sometimes these things happen, you know. I'm sure she'll eventually be back to herself in no time. Though I'm still rather annoyed she tried to crush me."
InuYasha blinked at Myoga, "What? Back to herself...Myoga, Izumi's dead."
Myoga blinked his little bug eyes at the hanyou, speaking calmly, "No she's not."
"Yes, she is!"
"...No she's not."
"She is."
Pause.
"No she's not."
"Myoga!"
Myoga waved his four arms, "Lord InuYasha, I just came from a village where she tried to crush me with a bowl!"
InuYasha shook his head, "You're mistaken, Myoga. She's dead. Kagome saw her...her body. Sesshomaru took her to...wherever she wanted her remains left."
"Well...unless she wanted to be left in a village...alive...then I have to say you're mistaken. She's in a village, over three days walk from here."
"Damnit, Myoga!"
"Oh, Myoga!" Kagome walked up to them, wearing dark blue hakama and a white woman's haori, and knelt, "What are you doing here?"
"Hallucinating," InuYasha growled.
"I am not seeing things!" Myoga said, waving his four arms again, "I'm telling you the Lady Izumi is living in a village!"
Kagome blinked, "What?"
"Shut up!" InuYasha said, growing angry.
"I know the Lady Izumi, Lord InuYasha! I've spent many years in her presence! I know her voice, her appearance, her scent! But she didn't recognise me at all!"
"No, Myoga, she's dead. I saw her. I saw Sesshomaru pick her up, and she was dead."
"Well, maybe Lord Sesshomaru carried her somewhere all right, to that village! I caught his scent just outside that village."
Now both Kagome and InuYasha blinked. Kagome leaned forward, "Sesshomaru near a human village? He must have just been passing by."
"His scent was too strong there, Lady Kagome. He's been there a while now."
InuYasha and Kagome looked at each other.
"You must trust me on this, Lord InuYasha," Myoga said, hopping up and down, "Lady Izumi is in that village, although she doesn't seem to know who I am, or even who she is."
There was a pause, and then InuYasha stood up. There was a dark look on his face. Kagome stood up, "InuYasha?"
"We're going to go see. Myoga, you're coming with us. I'm going to see if Miroku and Sango want to come, then we're going."
He glared up at the sky, and made a fist, his voice low and angry, "And the Gods help Sesshomaru if Izumi's been alive all this time and he didn't let anyone know."
******************************************
InuYasha ran along the ground, occasionally lunging into a tree or off a boulder to get some height. He soared smoothly, long silver hair trailing out behind him as he ran.
Miroku, Sango, and Kagome sat on Kirara, flying slightly above the hanyou. Kagome held Shippo, and Myoga sat on her shoulder.
"Myoga, are you sure it was the Lady Izumi?" Shippo asked.
"Shippo, stop asking me that! Yes I'm sure! I've known her a very long time! It was definately her!"
"Why wouldn't she come and let InuYasha know she was alive?" Sango asked.
"You heard Myoga," Miroku said, "She didn't recognise him. Perhaps she has some form of amnesia."
"It seems odd, though," Sango said, "For Sesshomaru to carry Izumi to a human village and leave her there."
"And visit her," Miroku said.
Sango nodded, but spoke, "If Kagome and I are right, and Sesshomaru does have some sort of feelings for Izumi, that might make sense, but...why would he tell Kagome she was dead if she wasn't?"
"I don't know," Kagome said, shaking her head, "The whole thing is so weird. The way Izumi was lying in Sesshomaru's arms, she was either dead, or unconscious. And even if Sesshomaru did have feelings for her, to take her away to a human village, it's bizarre."
"And to visit her," Shippo said, "I can't imagine Sesshomaru hanging around a human village at all."
Miroku looked down to where InuYasha was running, "If Sesshomaru has kept Izumi's survival a secret, InuYasha is going to be very angry."
"And if InuYasha attacks Sesshomaru," Sango said, "I don't know if InuYasha will survive. InuYasha is so powerful, but Sesshomaru is obviously much more so."
"None of it makes any sense," Myoga said, "What Kagome explained to me shouldn't have been enough to kill Lady Izumi. She was almost a Goddess in her own right, having absorbed so much power. I can see her being badly hurt, yes, but...killed?
We'll have to ask her what happened."
Kagome, who had been mostly quiet all this time, spoke lowly, "Guys? I need to tell you something. It's important...and you all have to promise me you won't breathe a word of this to either InuYasha, or Sesshomaru."
They all turned, looking at her.
Kagome looked down at Shippo, "Especially you, Shippo. If you think you might not be able to keep a secret, cover your ears. Because this...well...
If Sesshomaru finds out, I think he'd try to kill InuYasha. And if InuYasha finds out, he...well...I don't know what he'll do, but he'll be so upset at himself."
Shippo looked at her, big green eyes wide, "I can keep it, Kagome, if I know it would hurt InuYasha."
Kagome nodded, and looked down to where the hanyou ran along the path, making sure he wasn't close enough to hear anything.
"When InuYasha was on that island, there was a portal there. And he tried to close it. By himself."
Miroku blinked, "I thought Izumi told him he wasn't strong enough."
"He isn't. And it...it came back at him. The SolarFlare. So he tried to use the Backlash Wave, and...it came back at him too."
They all stared at her.
Kagome kept her eyes below, where he ran.
"Mikado told me it killed him. InuYasha died."
Shippo gasped, looking horrified. The same look was in the eyes of her friends when she glanced at them.
She continued, "When Izumi showed up and found him dead, she...Mikado told me, she brought him back. She brought him back to life."
Myoga stirred, "But I thought-"
Kagome nodded, "They're not allowed to do that. A god or goddess is not allowed to do that. Mortals can...but they don't have the power to return people's own souls right back to their own bodies."
Kagome looked at Sango, "That's why when you were brought back, you were brought back to your wounded body. Amaterasu hadn't let your soul move on to the other side, so technically, you weren't dead."
"She was dead enough," Miroku said, hotly. He was still angry Amaterasu had kept her survival a secret. Sango smiled softly at the monk.
Kagome nodded, "But it was sort of a loophole. But she couldn't fix Sango's body. Izumi's a mortal, so she didn't have the restrictions on her. And having been with Amaterasu for so long, she had absorbed enough power to be able to bring InuYasha back into his body, which she fixed."
They were silent.
"But...in doing that, she lost almost all of her power. Mikado thinks she didn't have enough to close the portal properly anymore, so...she got rid of it the only way she knew how."
Sango gasped, "The burning mountain?! Izumi brought that down on top of herself!?"
Kagome nodded, "It sealed the portal because it destroyed everything else there as well. Mikado thinks there was just enough power left in Izumi that she wasn't obliterated, her body remained. That's how Sesshomaru was able to find her."
The wind whistled mournfully around them.
"So if Sesshomaru finds out it's InuYasha's fault Izumi died," Sango said, "he'll try to kill InuYasha."
Miroku nodded, "And if InuYasha finds out, it'll practically kill him. Kagome, how on earth have you kept this so quiet?"
She smiled sickly at the monk, "Because I didn't think I would ever have to think about it. Izumi was dead, and gone, and...but now, if we go in there demanding answers...we might get them. And that would be bad."
"It sounds like Izumi might not remember, if she doesn't even remember Myoga," Shippo said.
"All the same," Miroku said, "We'll have to make sure if InuYasha, or Sesshomaru, starts getting close to what may have happened, we try to lead them away."
They all nodded.
"How much farther, Myoga?" InuYasha called up to them.
The flea peered down, "Not too much farther, Lord InuYasha! It took me three days, but I was hopping. Flying like this, we should be there in another hour or two."
"Do you want a rest?" Kagome called down, "You've been running for four hours now!"
"I'm fine!" he called back, sounding annoyed.
Sango spoke up, "Well we're not. We need to stretch our legs. We're going to stop for a few minutes."
"Fine, whatever," he called up, cranky.
Sango smiled at Kagome, "Give him something to drink."
Kagome smiled.
They landed, and set up a small camp of sorts, breaking out water and a few things to eat. InuYasha paced back and forth on the boundaries of the camp, glaring out in the direction they had been moving. It was obvious he wanted to be moving again, wanted to get going.
Kagome twisted the top off a bottle of fruit punch, and walked over to him, holding it out, "Here."
Not even looking at her, he spoke, "Thanks but I'm not hungry."
"Good," she smiled, "I'd hate for you to eat the bottle."
He blinked, looking back at her, at the bottle, he took it, looking annoyed, "We don't have time to stop, Kagome."
"If Myoga's right, Izumi's been in that village for a while now. A few more hours won't hurt. And you should at least drink something, you don't want to get dehydrated."
He sighed, annoyed, but dutifully lifted the bottle and drank.
Kagome watched him, smiling fondly. It was so much easier now, not having to hide what she was feeling anymore, either from him or herself.
The bottle half gone, InuYasha spoke, still looking out in the direction they were moving, "Why do you think she can't remember anything?"
"Well...that meteor's not a snowball to get hit with. What I can't understand is why Sesshomaru told me she was dead if she wasn't?"
The hanyou's voice was dark, "I don't like the thoughts of Sesshomaru with Izumi if she was injured or unconscious."
"InuYasha, I told you, I'm pretty sure Sesshomaru likes Izumi."
"Yeah, well, that thought doesn't give me much ease either. I wouldn't put it past him to - " he shut up, biting off his words.
"To what?" Kagome looked at him, then blinked, "What? No. Sesshomaru wouldn't force himself on her!"
InuYasha looked back at her, "How would you know?"
"He...doesn't seem the type."
"Oh, he's the type to try and melt you when you first picked up the Tetsusaiga, but he's not the type to take advantage of an unconscious woman he's supposed to feel something for?"
Kagome just looked at him, "InuYasha..."
He suddenly blinked, "Or did something happen that time you and he were stuck in that alternate dimension thing? With the demons?"
Kagome blinked, "What?"
He turned, looking at her, "Did something-"
"No, something didn't happen!" Kagome blinked, outraged, "Give me a little credit! I don't exactly have the warm and fuzzies for a guy who has tried to kill me on several occasions, not to mention you!"
"I didn't mean if you did anything, I meant if-"
"InuYasha, Sesshomaru hates humans. He despises them. I really, really doubt he would ever be able to look at any one of them, even a beautiful woman, and see anything other than a bug."
"But Izumi-"
"Was a Senmin. Not a human."
He sighed, "Then why is he still hanging around?"
"That...I don't know," she admitted.
They travelled on, moving closer and closer to the coast. The smell of the sea was faint, but growing all the time. In the distance, thunder started to rumble, threatening rain.
"How much farther, Myoga!?" InuYasha called from below.
"We should be able to see the village from here, my Lord!"
Along the path, a clearing opened, and InuYasha turned, moving towards the cliffside.
It only took him a few seconds to recognise it. It was the same place as his dream. It looked different, because it was daylight, it wasn't bathed in moonlight. But it was the same place.
And as he slowed to a walk, he looked out over the villages far below, and there, in the sky in the distance but moving closer, were strange dark clouds, ominous and moody, lightning flickering between the clouds.
"That's a creepy-looking storm," Shippo said.
Kagome looked at it, then leaned forward, "Kirara, let me down, please?"
The giant feline lowered herself, and Kagome slipped off, over the side. She moved to stand beside InuYasha.
He didn't turn as she approached, but he spoke, "That's it, Kagome. This is the same place. The place I saw in my dream. Even that weird storm."
Kagome eyed the storm, a strange, apprehensive feeling inside her.
"Then let's go."