Those Scribbles on Tree Bark
Summary - Kagome Higurashi is a 22 year old author with anti-social tendencies and a thoroughly normal life, that is until a bruised and broken dog demon comes crashing through her door ruining her peaceful existence and her crème carpet. AU I/K There's a little violence at the beginning but that's all really…for now mwahahaha! – ahem -. This is an AU, so Kagome never fell down the well, they are meeting for the first time at an older age (Kagome is 22), Inuyasha is still a half dog demon (I couldn't get rid of the ears!), and the rest I hope you'll figure out (with me) along the way! - insert cheesy grin -
A/N - Hello there all you fine people of the world. I am Earlie Byrd and this is my first fic. I hope you like it, I have the whole thing planned out but I'm not sure if people would be interested in this sort of thing so I'm begging for your support/advice/contempt, it's all good! So if you like the idea and want me to continue please take a few moments to review, or even if you simply say "you suck like one of those…suckyfish things that cling to the tank" then at least I will know to move on. So buckle your shoes and comb your eyelashes here it is:
I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters in it, I also do not own a fluffy warthog but that's another story…
Chapter 1 – In which Worlds Collide and a Crème Carpet is Ruined.
"NO!"
The air was thick with screams, and smoke and the stench of blood. The moon appeared from behind a cloud and illuminated the scene; a man was fighting desperately with a warped creature. It had a human looking body, but other appendages, slimy and reeking groped around with a life of their own, extended from various parts of him. Its one eye was burst and the empty socket gaped at the onlookers as blood poured from it. The man fighting it raised a large sword and sliced an arm from the thing, but the fleshy pink appendages grabbed him and squeezed until a loud sickening crack was heard and the man's body was hurled to the floor a mass of gashes and wounds. The man had long silver hair and what looked like dog ears on his head; he slowly raised himself from the ground, steadying himself on his sword.
A woman with a large boomerang struck the creature, whilst a large cat guarded her from any harm.
"Naraku!" shouted the woman as she struck the creature again and again, "I will kill you for what you did to my people. Inuyasha, get up, quickly!"
The silver haired man was upright now and approaching the creature on unsteady limbs, Naraku was near-dead, he could smell it. He doubted that he would survive this battle, but if he took Naraku down then he didn't care.
He was seized again around the throat, and he gagged at the stink of rotting flesh that the slimy appendage gave out. He struggled, but felt his limbs begin to grow heavy as he stated to suffocate. All of a sudden the fleshy growth was slashed and the silver haired man set free, he didn't need to turn and see his rescuer, Sesshoumaru's scent was easily recognisable to him. He growled, there was no way he would thank his proud half-brother. Picking up the large fang-shaped sword he hurled a great destructive force at Naraku.
Many people had fled, but some were watching in the safety of shrubbery in the surrounding area. It was a large group attacking the creature, and they appeared to be slowly winning. This wasn't the first battle between these demons; the villagers had heard of others, it had been going on for many years.
The silver haired man was pulled quickly out of the path of the Naraku creature by a monk,
"Inuyasha! What good to us are you if you're dead? Go and find somewhere to recuperate!"
Inuyasha ignored him and hurled himself back towards the creature, sword swinging as he unleashed a barrage of powerful attacks. Then something small and shining fell from a gash in the creature and rolled across the dirt. Time seemed to freeze, everyone went deadly still for what appeared to be an eternity, then they closed in, everyone aiming for the tiny purple jewel that glittered on the dirty ground. Inuyasha reached it and closed his hand quickly around it snatching it to his body, then at the encouragement of his teammates he ran away from the creature as fast as he could. The creature swelled and quivered as it grew desperate, Naraku was moving swiftly after Inuyasha, fleshy appendages sucking the life of the surrounding area.
Inuyasha ran into a clearing, running swiftly he threw his arms behind him to make his body more streamlined, he could hear and smell Naraku, he was close.
Then the ground disappeared beneath him, and he fell startled into a disused well, recovering from his shock he was about to jump out when a purple grow enveloped him. He was being drawn down, through the bottom of the well, Naraku had tricked him! The silver haired man fought against the pull but eventually was sucked through the bottom of the well.
Inuyasha regained consciousness as his senses went into overdrive, wherever he was, it was nothing like the place he had come from. He could smell so many different scents. Opening an amber eye cautiously he noticed he was still in the well, jumping swiftly out in one clear motion he landed gracefully, and stopped.
Around him was a small area of greenery, and after that huge structures dominated the skyline, strange things went past as incredible speed. He could see people now, with odd clothing, the vast array of new sights and smells nearly overwhelmed him. Where the hell was he?
Suddenly he was aware of being approached from behind; he tensed and quickly turned forgetting about his injured state, he collapsed as he turned. Looking up he saw a human girl, she bent closely to him,
"Are you ok there?"
He could understand her! Not only that, she appeared to be enquiring about his health. She didn't seem to be afraid of him at all. He gave a minute nod, but continued to stare disbelievingly at the girl,
"I like your costume, is it a fancy dress party?"
"What are you blithering about wench?" he snapped, pretty annoyed with the whole situation, the girl blinked at him, and then laughed! She was laughing at him!
"I'm Eri, what's your name eh?"
She really wasn't getting it was she; still, she had guts to laugh at a hanyou he supposed.
"I need to get far away from here wench, where shall I go?" he asked in what could possibly considered a polite tone, if the closest you'd come to polite was a swift kick to the face.
"Hmm," she considered, appearing to not mind his rudeness, "well you could get a train, that'd take you far away quickly, but why would you want to leave Nagoya?"
"Then take me to one," he demanded
"What, any train?"
He glared at the girl who shrugged and motioned for him to follow, she lead him through complex streets close to the massive structures and held him back when he tried to walk in front of the giant bug-like creatures that travelled on grey tracks. She even put him on a train, which was some giant worm like structure where humans apparently went on when they wanted to travel quickly. Suddenly it started, the silver haired man was travelling fast, he could run quickly but this was something else entirely.
He had an odd urge to stick his head out of the window.
As scenes flashed past outside he idly wondered where all the green had gone, he was badly injured and exhausted but he refused to allow himself to sleep grimly digging his claws into his hand when his tiredness threatened to overwhelm him.
He didn't know how much time had passed, all he knew was that he had been on the train for a very long time, surely now he must be far enough away. He was tapped on the shoulder by a middle aged man with a large belly protruding over black trousers,
"Ticket?" he said in a dull voice, hand held out expectantly
"What?"
"Where's your train ticket?" sighed the attendant
"I don't know what you're talking about, now go away!" the silver haired man commanded
"If you don't have a ticket, I'm throwing you off at the next stop!" The train attendant said, hauling Inuyasha up and dragging him to the door.
The dog demon would have fought back, but his energy was severely depleted and his injuries were making movement more and more difficult. Dragged through the carriage and then forced through the doors the moment the train stopped, the silver haired man found himself by a little town. He stood on a grassy bank, it was dark and the rain began to pelt furiously against him, his sense of smell was dulled by the damp and he tried to seek anything familiar. He needed somewhere warm and dry, somewhere to heal his wounds and hide the Shikon no Tama.
Suddenly he caught a scent; it smelled like Kirara, the cat demon that protected Sango, the woman demon-slayer. If Sango and Kirara had made it here, then perhaps Miroku had too, they needed time to heal and regroup, and now that they had the Jewel and Naraku did not they could take their time. Using his last surge of energy he hurtled towards the smell, a large building with many stairs inside. Finally reaching where the scent came from he found his way blocked by a door; that was no problem, he quickly smashed through hurling himself against it.
And that was the moment that Inuyasha came crashing through the front door and he fell into unconsciousness.
A bird came to rest on a white windowsill belonging to the inhabitant of Flat 3.1, a small block sitting just on the edge of a sleepy little town. Beyond it lay the rolling hills, a picture of green, now and again dashed with colour where wild flowers grew. The small bird ruffled its brown feathers and began to sing, a beautiful sound to fill the town still enveloped in the quiet, sleepy morning.
Inside the window the curtains were drawn, a pale lemon silk elegantly draped with a small gap in the middle allowing some light into the room behind them. The room inside was elegantly furnished, it gave the impression that someone had decided it should look nice and then allowed reality to take over. The floor was covered in books and paper, and clothes lay scattered across a petite crème sofa. The bed was large and on a lemon drape across the bottom lay a very fat cat, sprawled inelegantly on its back. The yellow covers lay draped over a large lump in the bed, covering it completely.
The lump stirred, an eye opened a fraction and a hand slowly drew the covers back as a second eye opened and the woman surveyed the room, her brown eyes, still squinting, came to rest on the curtains from which the beautiful birdsong could be heard.
"Shut the hell UP!" shouted the woman, and a bottle of water that had previously sat by the bed hit the window with a loud bang. The startled bird immediately took flight into the cerulean sky, and the small town shrank below as he flew higher and higher, wingtips outstretched.
The woman closed her eyes and rolled back under the covers, soon she was breathing deeply again. The large cat gave a yawn and hauled itself up, padding softly across the crème carpet it slowly made its way through the hallway to the main room. The lounge and kitchen were separated by a small counter, which doubled as a kitchen work surface. The cat entered the kitchen and walked towards a white back door leading to a small balcony, ignoring the cat flap it sat down and yowled as loudly as it could.
Kagome Higurashi was not in a good mood, she had been woken at the crack of dawn, well perhaps ten o'clock in the morning, but to most students that is the crack of dawn. Then Buyo had been moaning to be let outside and then to be let back in, and then to be fed, again. Now she was at her part-time job, a tiny coffee house that also made and sold speciality chocolate. The owners were an old couple; they had opened up the shop upon their retirement and took great pleasure running it. They treated Kagome like a daughter and so often forgave her late appearances, she was a hard worker in any case, and due to her large eyes and flowing black hair she attracted a lot of customers. The old woman who ran the store, Kaede, elbowed Kagome gently,
"Look who it is! Coming in for his afternoon latte, and to stutter away at our lovely Kagome of course." She winked her good eye and toddled away, leaving Kagome to deal with the man now walking towards the counter.
The man approached with an air of cautious determination, he had light brown hair and dark eyes, the female customers in the shop eagerly watched him. He had an air of innocence, which only added to his already handsome features. Not only that he was in his final year at medical school, predicted a 1st degree, and a very nice and caring man. He was, according to Kaede, "the ideal man to take care of my Kagome", sometimes she'd even tack on a "when I'm gone" at the end of that sentence and sniff dramatically. Kagome however, firstly disagreed that she needed to be taken care of, she was doing a fine job thank you very much, and secondly there was something about him that was just a little…well she wasn't quite sure, but it classified as a reason all the same. Still, she greeted him with a smile,
"Good morning Hojo, what can I get you today?"
The man halted at the counter, and a slight blush appeared on his face, "Good morning Kagome," he took a deep breath, "youlookverynicetoday, can I have a café latte please?" his eyes fell back to the counter.
"Thank you Hojo, I'll make that for you and bring it to your table, ok?" Kagome smiled. Hojo nodded, glanced up briefly locking eyes with Kagome, and then practically ran to his usual table in the corner.
Kagome could almost hear Kaede's smirk, "Got something to say have you?" she narrowed her eyes.
"Don't know what you mean dear, I just think that he'd make a lovely husband for you, because I won't live forever you know. I want to hear the pitter-patter of little feet in here."
"I could put shoes on Buyo?"
Ignoring Kaede's disgruntled mutters; Kagome carefully carried Hojo's drink and placed it on the glossy wooden tabletop.
At six o'clock Kaede and Kagome began to shut up the shop, pulling down the shutters Kagome sighed and reached up and released her long ebony hair from where she had tied it in a ponytail earlier in the day. Running her fingers quickly through to detangle it, Kagome turned and walked into the small backroom in the shop to fetch her coat.
Dressed in her grey button up coat she waved goodbye to Kaede and stuffed her hands into her pockets. The evening was not overly cold and Kagome strolled through the streets until she reached her flat. Walking up the stairs she spent a while digging around for her keys, and then let herself into her flat. Buyo was stretched out on the radiator in the lounge, sighing deeply Kagome flung her coat at the sofa and flopped down gracelessly into the middle. The squishy cushions seemed to want to eat her whole, and this was part of the reason she had brought this sofa, digging under the cushions she found the remote and switched on the TV. Finding nothing much of interest she left it on for background noise and picked up the small laptop from the floor. Turning it on she began to write, having only written two books so far, she was a little concerned about her third. She had originally written the first whilst still in college at the tender age of nineteen. It had been an experiment of sorts, a way to express herself and allow other people to see the story that had dominated her imagination from an early age. It had been greatly received, and even won a prize. So the public had clamoured for more and she had a publishing deal, the second book had also been popular. The problem was, for her third novel her agent had suggested a "real-world romance", she mainly specialised in fantasy writing so had been stumped at this suggestion. Her problem was that she was having great difficulty creating her main characters; her agent rejected all the models she put before her. They were too bland, too unrealistic, too perfect, too…many other things, it was incredibly frustrating.
Getting up she went into the kitchen area and made an instant coffee, picking up the phone she pressed the button that played her voicemail. The first message to play was her agent asking how she was doing with characterisation, Kagome sighed and made a mental note to call her in the morning. The last message was from her mother,
"Kagome? Sorry to call when you're obviously busy but I haven't heard from you in a while darling. I know how stressed you are about work but you can pop home at anytime just to relax, have some of Mama's home cooking? Grandpa's doing well and I think Souta has a girlfriend – "She's not my girlfriend!" came the shouted interruption – "Well, I hope to hear from you soon, love you."
For a brief moment Kagome considered catching the train home and never returning, not bothering to write a new novel and instead help dust some of her Grandpa's old relics and charms. Kagome's Grandpa was a very superstitious man, holding all sorts of charms and wards against demons, he claimed to be well over a hundred years old, but from an early age Kagome had learned that her Grandpa had a rather overactive imagination.
Deciding to call her mother later, Kagome carried her coffee back to the lounge and set the mug down on a small oak table sparing it a small glance. The mug was round, pink and shaped like a large bottom; neon green letters blazed the slogan "Does my bum look big in this?" across it. It had been brought for her by Kaede who had declared it "hilarious" and nearly died laughing in the shop, until the manager had come to whisper to Kagome about her Grandmother's mental health, for which he received a large smack across the head with Kaede's cane. Kaede had immediately purchased it and then when they had been walking back decided suddenly that she was actually far too old to have such a mug, and so given it to Kagome.
A loud pitter-patter interrupted Kagome's thoughts, and for a second she feared that mini Kagome-Hojo lookalikes would come running around the corner, before she realised it had started to rain, heavily. Kagome settled back, the rain was nice when you were tucked up inside with a hot cup of coffee she decided. Putting her laptop to one side she lay back and closed her eyes to relax.
And that was the moment when her door flew off its hinges, hurtling into the opposite wall with a crash, and a dirty, wet person collapsed onto her nice crème carpet outlined by an array of splintered wood.
A/N – If you got this far without giving up then I applaud you, and ask you kindly to review…through the medium of dance! (Byrdie performs a "please review" dance). Also at this moment I do not have a beta reader, therefore any suggestions on general style, flow, spelling, grammar etc. are greatly appreciated. What do you think about chapter length if you want me to continue? Longer? Shorter? I am your humble servant - Byrdie.
Next Chapter – Surprise is probably the correct reaction to waking up and finding a murderous looking woman clutching a rolling pin, staring at you.