GODSPEED
Chapter 01: Deja Vu
Inuyasha and Kouga were cooperating in that it was the first time they had done anything together without fighting. It wasn't exactly cooperating, but it was as close as they had ever come.
It was in unison that they gaped at the ashy patch of grass where the object of their previous fight, Kagome, had been standing only moments before...until she had disappeared in a puff of vibrant pink smoke, like a witch making a flashy exit in a sticky situation. Inuyasha thought his eye might have twitched when a patch of bright green grass and an array of brilliant, colorful wild flowers burst into full bloom in the burned patch, despite the oncoming of the autumn weather hinted at by the chilly wind.
"Kagome's gone!" Kouga finally yelled, ice-blue eyes still wide with shock.
"What the hell just happened?" Inuyasha finally snapped, glaring at the wolf demon who stood on the opposite side of the fluttering flower patch, his shadow dimming the blossoms' vibrant colors.
Kouga's gaze abruptly leapt up to Inuyasha's face and he snarled at the accusatory tone of voice his opponent had used.
"Like I know!" he shouted. "It's your fault, anyway!"
"What did you just say, you wimpy wolf?" Inuyasha growled, coiling his fingers into fists as he prepared to attack his rival.
"What, are you deaf as well as stupid?" Kouga jeered. He bared his fangs wolfishly and allowed a small growl to rumble from his throat. "I said it was your fault! It's your fault Kagome's powers or whatever aren't working right!"
"It's not my fault!" Inuyasha insisted with a snarl, despite the small feeling of guilt building in his stomach. It was indirectly because of him that Kagome's inherent spiritual powers were behaving as they had been lately. When Kagome had ventured into hell itself to seek him out after she had been tricked by Naraku, her priestess powers seemingly enjoyed being used with the abundance and ease that came with being in a spiritual plane. Since they had returned together a week ago, her abilities had been chaotically changing. Sometimes they disappeared entirely and Kagome would not be able to sense even the Shikon shards, and still other times her pure power would flare up so suddenly and so strangely she would radiate light. Her hyperactive powers had, at the very least, made her a clear beacon for surrounding demons. Inuyasha had been busy all week.
However, Inuyasha felt that he could hardly be singled out for all of the blame regarding Kagome's abrupt disappearance. It had been when Kouga showed up that things had gone really wrong---and if the wolf demon had never appeared at all, Inuyasha told himself, then Kagome would still be enjoying the pleasant autumn weather right here before him.
"We've gotta find Kagome!" Kouga announced, forgoing the oncoming argument as he bent down to inspect the bright new vegetation, sneezing as pollen from one of the wild flowers carried on the breeze and fluttered up into his face. Inuyasha, who remained across from him, sank into a sulky pose.
"You think I don't know that?" Inuyasha said with a sneer. Then, he deflated. "Who knows where the hell she is now?"
Kouga began to pace back and forth in the dying grass irritably, carefully avoiding Kagome's small garden. He folded his arms over his chest and lost himself to thought. Inuyasha took a likewise pose and skulked, twitching his ears and partially closing his golden eyes to block out the sunlight. Minutes raced by relentlessly and the morning went on, leaving both demons to puzzle over the situation, a mutually quiet project that was broken only occasionally by low growls or angry snorts, and not so occasionally a swear word.
"Let's ask Kaede," Inuyasha suggested suddenly, filled with the reassurance that the elderly priestess would know exactly where Kagome had gone, and, more importantly, how to bring her home.
"Kaede? That old witch you guys leech off of?" Kouga clarified.
"Who else, moron? Let's go!" Inuyasha ordered with an air of great importance as he rolled his eyes. He began sprinting towards Kaede's cottage where it sat flung out on the far edge of town, shaded by the colored leaves on the branches of the trees.
"What the hell's the big idea?" Kouga shouted when Inuyasha came to an abrupt halt. Kouga made a small leap to his right to avoid colliding with his foe; a move that served to make him look like an awkward dancer. Inuyasha missed it entirely.
"Wait a minute," he growled instead. "I'm going to go see Kaede. You're going to go stick your wimpy nose in someone else's business. Now beat it!"
"And trust you save my darling Kagome, mutt? I don't think so!" Kouga argued. He bared his teeth once more.
"She's not your darling, and it's your fault we're in this mess to begin with, stinking wolf!" Inuyasha insisted confidently, baring his own teeth and growling. "I don't need your help and neither does Kagome!"
"Don't kid yourself, puppy," Kouga spat scathingly, cracking his knuckles with marked impatience. "Kagome needs a real man in her life!"
"Why, you---! Today is the day I kill you!" Inuyasha challenged venomously, unsheathing his sword and pouncing at the angry wolf demon with fervor.
* * *
Inuyasha and Kouga passed much of the afternoon brawling in an unworked field near the village, scraping up grass and leaving craters in the earth, before they were discovered by the noise they were generating and then successfully separated by Sango and Miroku. They were then dragged back to Kaede's home, where, after several lengthy arguments attempting to justify actions and situate blame, the story of Kagome's disappearance was finally told.
They started their recount with Kouga's arrival at the crest of a hill where Inuyasha and Kagome had been sitting. The weather had been fadingly warm, and Kagome wanted to spend one last day relaxing in it before it turned cold and they started their journey towards Naraku again. Inuyasha had been with her to protect her, as he had been accompanying her much more often than he had been since they returned from hell. Kouga had appeared late in the morning to make a general check-up on Kagome's well-being, which, of course, upset Inuyasha. The two demons had begun to fight with one another while Kagome tried, in her own way, to alleviate the rising tempers of her two friends.
When Kagome had finally lost her own temper, she stepped between the two brawling men and shouted, "Would you stop fighting for once in your lives, for heaven's sake?"
After her statement, she had vanished in a puff of pure, pink light and tendrils of glowing smoke. She left the two stunned canine demons exactly where they had been while in her place there was nothing but a burned patch of earth on the hillside. For moments after that, Inuyasha and Kouga had only been able to stare down at the ashen patch in quiet surprise, with even the bugs silent in their humming, before flowers burst into life and Inuyasha and Kouga renewed their fight.
When the story came to a close, Kaede drew herself into a thoughtful silence. After several moments passed, she heaved a great, tired sigh and wondered to herself how this odd group of humans and demons managed to find themselves with so many problems of every conceivable variety. She faintly wondered if they were capable of living without chaos. What will they do when Naraku is slain? she asked herself, shaking her head.
The old priestess hummed once and then focused on the newest problem of the group, looking into the faces of the gathered company. Only the adults were present and waiting for her attention; Shippou had gone into town to show his new friend Miharu and her guardians Taro and Amaya around, pointing out where which people lived and the best places to play.
"You gonna help us or not, old hag?" Inuyasha grumpily asked after he lost his patience. Sango cast him a deadly glare.
"Let her think, dog crap!" Kouga growled before the demon slayer could remark at all. Sango loosed an exasperated sigh and threw her arms up into the air in a mark of hopelessness.
"It seems to me..." Kaede began, preventing the two males before her from starting a new brawl with one another. Both Kouga and Inuyasha immediately gave Kaede their attention, staring up at her expectantly for answers. Kaede cleared her throat. "It seems to me that this is indeed a disaster. I myself am unable to assist ye in this new problem of yours..."
"But---"
"But," she went on before Inuyasha could protest, "ye ought to travel to the mountains and find the Oracle. She might be able to lend ye an answer."
"The Oracle?" Inuyasha and Kouga repeated in unison, sending swift, angry glares at each other before concentrating on Kaede once more.
"Yes," Kaede confirmed. "She is a woman of fate who can foretell the future. She knows all that has been, and all that will be---for all people. If ye come to her with a question, she will lend ye an answer...if she deems your question worthwhile to answer."
"In the mountains, right?" Inuyasha repeated. Kaede nodded her head and Inuyasha straightened, a determined look on his face. "It's settled then! I'm going to the mountains to talk to this know-it-all lady!"
"And how about us..?" Sango asked him as she raised an eyebrow. "We're worried about Kagome, as well."
"Indeed," Miroku agreed, nodding his head once.
"I'll get her back," Inuyasha assured grumpily. "I can go faster without you lugs tagging along."
"If you say so," Sango replied with a heavy sigh as she began to massage her temple. "I don't want to be seen with you and Kouga together, anyhow."
"If you do not mind my interjecting, Inuyasha..." Miroku added, resting his gaze on the view framed in from the doorway. He was watching a retreating figure with a raised eyebrow. "I think Kouga will beat you there."
"What?" Inuyasha snarled, standing and spinning on his heel in time to see Kouga disappear from the edge of the forest. "That bastard!" he yelled as he sprinted off after his rival in the light of the declining sun. Sango, Miroku, and Kaede all sighed in unison...grateful that they weren't to be included in this particular journey, after all.
* * *
"Beat it, dog crap!" Kouga threatened with a dark glare as Inuyasha kept a close pace with the wolf demon solely through an extra boost of ego.
"I'll take care of Kagome, you bastard!" the half-demon insisted with forceful conviction. Kouga sent him another withering glare but made no further reply.
They had been bickering steadily since the time they had departed from Kaede's village, and Kouga was growing more and more weary of arguing. The insults were repetitive, but neither demon would launch a physical attack against the other in their haste to find the Oracle. Finding Kagome was a task more important to both demons than arguing was.
Inuyasha snorted once after several moments of tense silence. He, as well as Kouga, was growing tired of the arguments, but his pride would not allow Kouga to have the last word.
By the time the two demons neared the trail of mountains, the sun was low on the horizon and cut sharply by the spiked peaks of the rocky caps, smeared and glowing red in the sky. They paused as they approached the new area, quietly observing what was laid out before them. Inuyasha, panting and wiping a way a thin film of sweat from his forehead, allowed his eyes to roam steadily over the outcropping of skyward reaching mountain peaks. There was a forest of sturdy, short trees that crawled messily around the feet of the mountains and remained green despite the oncoming season. Inuyasha sniffed at the air suspiciously at a gentle breeze that smelled of pine mixed with the scent of enchantment; he detected no signs of animal life but for a group of willowy birds soaring and cawing overhead.
"This place reeks of magic," Kouga murmured, narrowing his eyes dubiously.
"You think I can't tell on my own?" Inuyasha snapped. Kouga only huffed and growled once.
The two demons took a much slower pace, more apt for exploration, and wandered up the stoney landscape. They worked their way upward, searching small caverns and looking into crevices and observing every ledge and crack. They cautiously kept going, laying out each curve of every stone, until finally they found a pocket of air in one cave that smelled heavily of hazy mist and something bittersweet. Growling and on-guard, the two demons carefully poked into the shady grotto.
Further into the cave, where the sunlight hardly touched, a woman sat in the shadows. Her long black hair trailed from underneath a hood that veiled the woman's entire head and her eyes. The longest of the strands pooled on the floor where she sat motionless with her delicate hands in her lap.
"You're the Oracle," Inuyasha stated. The pale woman nodded once slowly in confirmation.
Kouga's expression became puzzled. "Why didn't we come here sooner?" he asked suddenly. "Can't she tell us where Naraku is?"
"Oh, like she really cares about Naraku," Inuyasha snapped. The Oracle waited in silence as the two demons continued to bicker, until their snarling grew into growls and their words turned into punches.
"Silence," the Oracle finally ordered when Inuyasha and Kouga crashed into one of the smooth cavern walls, shaking several wooden shelves that held unmarked jars.
"Tell us where Kagome is," Inuyasha barked when he and Kouga had separated.
"You idiot," Kouga broke in. "We're supposed to ask a question, mutt."
The Oracle cleared her throat when Inuyasha turned to growl at Kouga once more. "Ask but one worthy question, and I shall answer you. I care not for human squabbles, nor for the bickering of demons, but if your cause is worthwhile I might lend you my knowledge."
"Where's Kagome?" Inuyasha and Kouga asked at once together, exchanging heartfelt glares.
"And why would you wish to know this woman's whereabouts? Answer honestly; you have but one response. If I do not approve of your reasoning, I shall not answer you," the Oracle instructed, smiling secretively. She knew already for what reasons Kouga and Inuyasha sought after Kagome, but the old Oracle also knew that they would both need a sense of purpose for their journey before they could commit to it.
"She's my woman, damn it," Kouga grumbled without hesitation. The Oracle nodded once and Inuyasha glared at him. Inuyasha paused before he answered, fidgeting under the Oracle's veiled stare. He hardly thought the Oracle would approve of his normal excuse of his claim over Kagome as his shard detector.
"And you?" the mystic woman pressed after a moment, her red smile still in place.
"C'mon, dog crap." Kouga snorted in annoyance and disgust. Inuyasha licked his lips, thinking that the Oracle also would not approve of his deed as a return of favor for Kagome's trip into hell for him.
The Oracle shifted once on her cushion. "Do you even know your reason? Or are you blindly following after her in a rage?" she asked.
"What do you know?" Inuyasha snipped, baring his teeth in a sneer. "Of course I'm going after her because I care about her! Wouldn't you?"
"Perhaps," the Oracle answered. "But most likely not."
"What, are you crazy? I'd do anything for Kagome!" Inuyasha assured. The Oracle only went on smiling, and then she gave a small nod.
"I simply meant that your female companion is not unhappy where she is now," she explained tonelessly.
"Where is she?" Kouga asked.
"With the powers inherent to her, she has transported herself into a different realm entirely. She has taken herself to a realm of purity and peace, somewhere of finality, some place where, indeed, she is not out of place. She no longer has any pressing worries; no reasons to fear anything at all. She is there comfortably only because she is so pure of heart and soul, with such deep powers, that she was mistaken for one of their own. Yes, she is in a place of great wonder where the immortal may never go," the Oracle explained, her voice older and much more deeply tired than her smooth, thin hands and warmly blushed cheeks.
"And where is this?" Inuyasha responded as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the Oracle.
He could feel the Oracle's eyes on him, although they were covered. "She has gone to heaven."
