Tears sprung to her eyes, a gasp clogging up her her throat so large she nearly couldn't breathe. She couldn't move, her body refusing to follow her command to turn and run the other way. She couldn't be seeing what she was. It had to be a trick of the mind. It had to be all her insecurities rearing up and turning a dream into a nightmare. What she was seeing couldn't be real.
It just couldn't.
But, with every soft word that caressed her ears as softly as his fingers caressed Kikyo's cheek, Kagome knew it was. Her body continued to betray her as it forced her to watch InuYasha shower affection she could only dream of on someone else. Not just anyone else, either; a dead someone else.
Kikyo wasn't even alive and she was still able to render InuYasha into a begging little bastard, falling all over himself to please her, all but dropping to his knees to kiss her ass. However, with the way the conversation was going, Kagome wouldn't be surprised at this point if the offer was made.
It wasn't bad enough that he was with another woman behind her back. Oh, no. He had to add insult to injury and not even keep her out of it.
She's nothing but a shard detector.
She's nothing compared to you.
I protect her only so I can avenge you.
That last one hurt more than anything InuYasha had ever said about her before, and he has said a lot. It's one thing to know she was really nothing more than a means to an end, but it was another to have it so blatantly displayed before her.
She may as well have been made of stone for as little impact her presence made on the couple too wrapped up in each other to hear her heart shattering. Her hands lifted to her face, fingers covering her quivering lips as the whimper she had been choking on finally worked its way free at the sight of Inuyasha's head descending. It was with only strength given to her by the Gods she was finally able to turn away from the sight, but the damage was done. She would never be able to forget what she saw.
With her eyes clouded with tears and her vision obstructed, she blindly ran back the way she came and towards the rest of the group, the empty water bottles she intended to fill being left behind at the site of her destruction.
The other shard hunters looked to the path where the sound of frantic footfalls quickly closed in, all of them jumping to their feet, ready for whatever came into the clearing... or so they thought. They expected Kagome to be the one that entered the clearing, but they weren't expecting her to be a blubbering mess of tears and snotty sobs.
Sango and Shippo were both quick to her side, but not even they were able to calm her enough to tell them what happened. All she was able to get out between shows of heartbreak was 'home'.
Sango, though not sure why her best friend was so distraught, nodded without hesitation, calling over her neko, Kirara, to take Kagome back to the well. Why she wasn't overly fond of the idea to let Kagome go by herself in the state she was in, she knew well enough that all Kagome needed was some space to calm down and couple of days away from the hanyou Sango was pretty she was going to kill.
Shippo, who normally went with Kagome and stayed at the village while she was in her time, cried out when she didn't pick him up before she climbed on the large cat demon's back, instantly spurring her into taking off. She was in such a rush to leave the clearing before InuYasha returned, she left everything behind, including her bow and arrows.
How did this happen? How did I end up here? How do I come second to an animated fucking corpse?
These thoughts and others ran a vicious cycle through Kagome's mind as she sat atop Kirara on her way to the Bone Eater's Well. She was once again going home because of something InuYasha did after how many times she said she would never do that again? The only reason she ever wanted to leave was when she had to go home for supplies or school, yet here she was, bawling her eyes out on her way home because of him.
This couldn't keep happening. There was too much to do for this to continue. She couldn't keep letting him affect her like this, to the point she's running away as fast as a demon could fly. Why couldn't he see she was every bit as good as Kikyo? Better, actually, because Kagome was alive. She could give him everything the dead priestess couldn't. InuYasha was just too blind to see it.
Too blind? Or did he just not care?
Another round of soul shattering sobs struck Kagome's body, nearly knocking her off Kirara's back. She couldn't do anything but lean forward, fist her fingers into Kirara's fur, and bury her face. It wasn't like she was the one that needed to see where they were going. Kirara knew how to get back to the well. Kagome had no idea where they were, so she wouldn't have been a help with navigation anyway.
Still, even not knowing where she was, it would still have been a good idea to pay attention to where they were going.
