Chapter 2 – The Truth About Nothing

(Still in the past, this section is set the day after the incident.)

The morning after Kikyou's death, Kagome awoke in a cave, having either cried herself to sleep or passed out from a combination of pain and exhaustion. The wound on her shoulder, as well as her cuts had been cleaned, and her bloody shirt was neatly folded at her feet. She hurt everywhere, but it was forgotten when she saw a pair of amber eyes staring at her as she sat there in her bra and skirt. Kagome blushed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Kikyou..."

"Your companions are not looking for you, are they?" Sesshomaru asked, surprised Inuyasha wasn't running all over the countryside screaming for the young priestess.

Kagome shook her head. "They think I've gone home for the week." The smell of smoke was still in the air, where Sesshomaru had burned every trace they'd ever met Kikyou or that Kikyou's final resting place was in the middle of The Great Youkai Forest. "Would you...would you please take me home? Please?"

Sesshomaru glared at her. "No. I'll return you to your home when they expect you to be there."

"What am I supposed to do until then? You aren't seriously going to make me stay here!" Kagome cried out.

Sesshomaru stood. "Do whatever you please, but you may not leave the immediate area. Grieve, if you must. When you go back you won't so much as hint at what occurred last night."

"You're afraid I'll break down and tell everyone." Kagome said. He didn't answer, but walked out of the cave to Ah-Un, who landed nearby. Sesshomaru came back with a kimono and a blanket and threw them at Kagome. "Why do you care? You've tried to kill Inuyasha countless times!"

Sesshomaru's expression never changed as he knelt down, inches from her face. "Have I?" He put his fingers under her chin and forced her to look at him. "Make no mistake, Kagome." Kagome shuddered at the mention of her name. "If I wanted that whelp dead, he would have been dead before you were born."

"I doubt that." Kagome said, breaking away from his gaze. Her stomach growled, and she realized she was stuck in a cave, with Sesshomaru, injured, with no supplies. She ignored it, and tried to think of a way she could escape. "INU—UMHP"

Sesshomaru's hand clapped over her mouth and he threw her down. "You should not be so eager for his rescue. The dirt on your body is not from this forest."

Kagome stayed on the ground and braced her arm. "It was an accident! Please just...let me go!" She curled up and started crying, and Sesshomaru just stared at her. "Please...I'm hurt, I'm cold, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm scared, and I just want to go home!" He did nothing but watch as she cried herself back to sleep.

That night, she woke up to find a fire crackling near the mouth of the cave, and the blanket was draped over her. Sesshomaru was watching a couple of fish cook. She put the kimono on and crawled over to the fire and took a fish he held out to her. Neither said anything, and Kagome ate and drank, then went back to curling up at the back of the cave. She felt better, like she'd simply cried herself out of tears. The wound on her shoulder seemed to look quite a lot better, and considering that they were deep punctures, she was surprised that there was no swelling or infection. "Thank you." She said. "What if I just tell him I did it? Accidentally."

Sesshomaru stared down at the fire. "He would cast you away from him. That would be unproductive, and have the same effect in the fight against Naraku as if I had simply killed you."

"If I tell him the truth..." Kagome started. "He'll do that, and then he'll try to fight you to the death." She remembered the conversation from earlier. "What did you mean when you said you didn't want Inuyasha dead?"

"That is none of your concern." Sesshomaru snapped.

Kagome was starting to feel impatient. "It is, because you made it my concern!"

Sesshomaru bit into his bottom lip. "You have yet to give me a reason I should tell you. Perhaps you should like to tell me what is on the other side of the well?"

"I can't just tell anyone about that. You have to promise me...you won't try to go through it and you won't use it against me." Kagome said.

"You have my word." Sesshomaru said.

Kagome pulled the blanket closer around her and crawled back to the fire, suddenly feeling cold. "I'm from five centuries in the future. The well takes me back to my time, but only Inuyasha and I can go through it for some reason."

Sesshomaru poked at the fire. "I promised my father I would not kill Inuyasha."

"Then I'm lying to Inuyasha to save your life, not his. Unless you'd break your own promise." Kagome mumbled. "Why should I care if Inuyasha kills you?"

Sesshomaru's suddenly seemed amused. "You would blame yourself regardless of the outcome of the fight." He watched Kagome rub her injured shoulder. "Humans are such strange creatures." Kagome could see the curiosity in his eyes, as if he wanted to ask her something, but held back.

"If we were to...talk, on the condition that what is said doesn't leave this cave...I'll answer whatever question it is that you want to ask so badly." Kagome said.

Sesshomaru suspiciously stared at Kagome, whose intense focus on him seemed more curiosity than fear. "Agreed." He examined her again before he spoke. "I am not ignorant of the things that happen. I know what that woman was in relation to you and to Inuyasha. Why are you so miserable that she is dead?"

Kagome's cheeks turned red at the insinuation that he knew about the strange love triangle. "She was Kikyou..."

"I fail to see the point." Sesshomaru said. "Or is it that you feel miserable because of the act, and not the actual life that was lost? Does the fact that you ended a life or the fact that the life was Kikyou's upset you more?"

Kagome's mind reeled as she considered his words. She felt beyond terrible for killing Kikyou, but she'd probably feel bad no matter who she killed, if the victim wasn't some terrible demon. At the same time, this was Kikyou, who she pitied. Kikyou, who Inuyasha loved. "If you saw me kill Kikyou, would you be sitting here in your current state of distress?"

Kagome felt guilt rise up inside of her when she answered. "No." Kagome said. "We've thought she was dead before. Then, I was sad for Inuyasha, not Kikyou."

"Aside from demons, you have never ended a life before now?" Sesshomaru asked.

"No! What kind of monster do you think I am?" Kagome asked indignantly. "You don't even care that we killed her, you're just worried about Inuyasha finding out we did it!"

Sesshomaru watched her in all her anger. Why did she expect him to be sad? In his eyes, they had unintentionally ended the life of a woman who lacked a normal body and possessed only a partial soul. Kikyou had also lived off manipulating the souls of the dead, which was considered a fairly heinous act in and of itself. His mind tracked back a few weeks to Rin, who cried for the better part of the day when she stepped on a lizard, sending it to death.

"Sesshomaru?" Kagome said as the demon suddenly seemed to lose attention in the conversation. "My turn."

"Hmm?" He responded.

"Are you quiet all the time or just around people you don't like?" Kagome asked.

His eyes narrowed and he stared into her. "I am social with very few people." That much was true. To most of the world, he was a cold, generally quiet bastard who roamed about the countryside doing as he pleased, but there were a few exceptions. Kagome wasn't about to become one of them, because she was both a human and the human that her brother wished to mate with.

"You're thinking about Inuyasha right now." Kagome said.

Sesshomaru gave her an amused stare. "And how did you know that?"

"You looked like you were about to upchuck." Kagome said, catching herself using slang. "Vomit."

A thought hit Kagome as she remembered the long forgotten math book. "Sesshomaru, I left something important at the village, and if Inuyasha finds it, he'll try to bring it home to me. But I'm not at home, I'm here!"

"What is it?" Sesshomaru asked.

"My math book. Inuyasha knows I need that for school." Kagome said.

"You...are literate?" Sesshomaru asked, as if stunned. "And someone is bothering to educate you, despite your traipsing across feudal Japan as you see fit?"

Kagome's hands rolled into fists. "Would you just go get the book? It's by a pond where I bathe in the village by the well."

"If I come back and you're not here, I will bind and gag you for the remainder of the week." Sesshomaru snapped as he disappeared into the night. If the forest was as dangerous as Kikyou and Sesshomaru hinted at, there's no way she'd bother with try to leave. Sesshomaru would just track her scent down, and drag her back.

When he left, she opened her kimono and examined her injuries. Whatever he did to treat my wounds worked great, I'll have to ask him about that when he gets back.

Back at Kaede's village, Inuyasha was sitting in a tree, having returned from a fruitless search for Kikyou. He caught a whiff of something and sat at full attention, trying to get another trace of the scent that would have recognized anywhere. "Sesshomaru!" He yelled as he leapt down and bounded through the forest. He traced the scent from the woods to the stream, then back again. Inuyasha's senses told him Sesshomaru was leaving the area, fast, and decided not to chase him. Whatever his reasons for coming to the pond, he didn't know, and didn't care. There was nothing of interest there and Sesshomaru was gone.

Six Months Later

"I'm fine!" Kagome said, pulling away as he tried to embrace her. "Don't do that!"

"Why?" Inuyasha asked, his eyes sincere.

Their relationship had deteriorated slowly as the guilt ate away at Kagome. Every time she went home, he would go search for Kikyou, totally unaware that she was dead. At some point, she had hoped he'd just realize he wasn't going to see her again and move on, but there was always a glimmer of hope in him.

The part of her that loved him wanted to tell him what had happened to Kikyou, so he could mourn her and move on. The other part knew that after this long, he'd never forgive her and there was still the issue of Sesshomaru, who had been kind enough to save her life.

"Because I just...I can't do this anymore." Kagome cried.

It was true. One more hug from Inuyasha threatened to break her as she mulled over the past six months for the thousandth time. She hadn't gone home that week at all, and what transpired in the cave was just something else she kept from Inuyasha. If Inuyasha ever knew everything that had happened, she had no idea what would happen to either of them. She could imagine some sort of crazed demonic state where he simply killed everything in sight until Sesshomaru killed him, or he killed Sesshomaru and kept on killing. Either way, she wasn't about to pit the brothers against each other. The price of staying silent was far less than what she'd pay if one or both of them died.

The next morning, she avoided Inuyasha like the plague. He looked tired and bedraggled, and she wasn't sure if it was because of what she'd said the day before or another reason entirely. They set out, hot on a tip about Naraku, and he barely said a word.

"Inuyasha looks extremely disturbed." Miroku said, as he sat on Kilala behind the women and Shippou. "Kagome, do you know why?"

"I can hear you, you know." Inuyasha snapped.

Shippou climbed onto Kilala's head. "Poor Inuyasha was tossing and turning all night, calling out for Kikyou."

Inuyasha stopped and turned to face them. "We're not going to look for Kikyou anymore. She's dead. She came to me in a dream last night and told me she had moved on." Kagome swallowed hard. Since he hadn't gone on a rampage after his brother, or her for that matter, it was safe to assume he still had no clue what had happened. Inuyasha's expression begged for Kagome's comfort, but like every other time, she couldn't offer it. Kagome looked away and Inuyasha kept walking forward.

I'm doing this because I love him. Kagome thought.

Naraku headed toward the group hastily. It was time to play with Inuyasha and his companions.

"He's coming this way!" Inuyasha said, stepping ahead of the ground, holding Tessaiga.

Naraku sped up to them and stopped, wearing the baboon pelt, but no mask. "Heheheheh, hello, Inuyasha."

"Naraku!" He screamed. "You killed Kikyou!"

Naraku raised an arm. "Kikyou is indeed dead, but I had no hand in her death. I myself was quite shocked to learn about the circumstances of her death."

"What happened to her?" Inuyasha asked, lowering his sword.

Naraku smirked. "Kikyou died the day after you saw her last. There was a clandestine meeting in The Great Youkai forest. Three people attended and only two walked away alive. One was Kikyou, one was your enemy, and the last is one of your companions that travels with you even as we speak." He laughed and gave Kagome a quick glare. "Killing Kikyou was only the first of many betrayals committed against you."

"Don't listen to him, Inuyasha! He's just making up lies to turn you against us!" Miroku shouted.

"They burned the area where she died, masking their scents from you." Naraku said.

Inuyasha sheathed Tessaiga. "We're leaving." He said. The last day I ever saw her alive was the day we all broke up for the week. Miroku came back with bruises, Sango was limping...I don't think Shippou or Kilala would have done it and I know Kagome was on the other side of the well. He thought. This is just Naraku playing mind games.

"We're not far from the forest." Inuyasha said. "We should at least see if there's any trace of her there."

They hadn't been in the creepy forest long when Inuyasha picked up the scent of ash. He ran toward it and found himself in the middle of regrowing vegetation. He sniffed the ground. This dirt is...THIS IS KIKYO! Inuyasha found and arrowhead on the ground and then gasped when he made his next discovery:

One of Miroku's sacred sutras lay beneath the tree.

It was burned around the edges, and fragile from rain, but it smelled of him. When the others caught up to Inuyasha, he was sitting on the ground, holding the sutra. He looked up at Miroku. "Miroku...why?" He whimpered.

Review? Pwitty Pwease?

Next Chapter: Miroku's Shameful Alibi

Special thanks to: Serasvictoria666, Jay Ficlover, madmiko, AngelBeautyLove, and Killer of Kikyo!

Serasvictoria666 – I'm not going to lie, I haven't made that part up yet. Will he figure it out on his own? Will Kagome break down and tell him? Naraku could too. Who knows?

Jay – When I read your review, I came -really- close to rewriting my story as parody, LOL. Thank you for the awesome review!

Madmiko -- I hope you enjoyed this chappie. I'm going to have most of the early chapters in two parts, showing what happened after she died and why it made coping harder.

AngelBeautyLove – Kilala can be spelled with either two r's or two l's. The closest corresponding phonetic is similar to our 'r' and 'l' slurred together, which is the cause for many asian people having a difficult time pronouncing words that contain either. As far as Inuyasha is concerned, I believe it's intended to be two l's because a translation mistake surely would have been fixed before 167 episodes and four movies.