Chapter Two

Inuyasha dragged his feet slowly through the mud splattered ground, his hands still twitching in anger. He was soaked and covered in mud, blood, and even tears. Dried trails of blood covered his arms and face, both his own from injuries he inflicted himself, and others of demons. Many others. His hair was matted with the deep red liquid, and his face was splattered in blood and dirt. Cuts and scratches and bruises graced his arms up to his elbows, where his robe that had been rolled up begun.

The rain had run out, but his flood of emotion had not. On the painfully long trudge to the campsite, alone, severe depression came over Inuyasha as his energy finally drained and his anger diminished after all the bloodshed of anyone who had passed and all the poor innocent trees and shrubs that had met with his merciless fury and demon blood- fueled power.

Now back to his normal self—the surge of demonic blood gone after hours upon hours of bloodshed and terror—Inuyasha contemplated never coming back again. The troop would be pointless without it's most cheery and bright member. Kagome had been the glue holding them all together, and without her they would surely fall apart like a pathetic Popsicle stick tower.

And besides company, there really could be no hope to acquire all the shards and defeat Naraku. Her spiritual power was needed, whether he let her know or not, and they would be lost without her. Though he never let on this to her they really needed her. He needed her. More than anything. And now he wished he had maybe appreciated her more, lest she might still be with them, instead of with that flea bitten wolf. He cringed, remembering her harsh words, the image of Kagome in Kouga's arms…instead of his and that smirk when Kouga knew that he had won. He growled again, his anger sparked once more, and punched a passing demon out of anger, hardly noticing it.

He shook his head in defeat and slumped his shoulders as the campsite came into view, the last thing he needed to deal with right now. Telling the others how big he screwed up. He could almost see Sango's angry face, hear Miroku's lecherous jokes about Kagome and Kouga, and hear Shippo's agonized wails. There was no turning back now, though, his mistakes were irreversible.

Why had he told her he had chosen Kikyou, anyway? He didn't love her. He guesses he had just been scared, afraid the human miko would turn on him like so many others had, unwilling to open himself up and leave himself vulnerable to be hurt. He didn't think he could bear it to be rejected by Kagome after being together. And he was too deep in. He could not get involved in something he so clearly wanted, and needed more than she.

"Inuyasha! You're back!" Sango called as she saw Inuyasha's walking towards them in the distance.

"What took you so long, you big dummy?!" Shippo called to him, crawling out from under his sheets and coming up to stand beside Sango and Miroku.

"Finally." Miroku said as he watched Inuyasha. Something was wrong though, and as Inuyasha trudged closer, head down, feet dragging in the mud, it became clear, and Sango gasped as she saw him up close.

"Inuyasha! What happened?" She gasped, staring horrified at his bloodstained robes.

"Inuyasha, where is Kagome?" Miroku said slowly, as if putting two and two together, as he realized four.

"What did you do?" Shippo panicked as he realized the absence of Kagome as well, taking in all the blood and assuming the worst.

"She—she's gone." Inuyasha ground out gruffly, his voice breaking unnaturally as he choked back a tear.

"She's dead?!" Sango squeaked, horrified.

"She might as well be." Inuyasha snarled, recounting the event in his mind. "But no, she's not dead. She left. With him." Inuyasha finished bitterly, looking away. To his surprise, though, the yelling he anticipated never came. He looked up in confusion as he felt Miroku's Hand on his shoulder, and was met with Sango's kind eyes.

"Tell us Inuyasha. Tell us what happened." Sango said gently, shooing Shippo and telling him she would explain later as they led Inuyasha to a hut to mend his wounds, clean his clothes, and hear what happened.

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Inuyasha sighed, now fully bandaged, as Miroku prodded him again to explain the day's earlier events and Sango encouraged him as well, from the other side of the room where she sat cleaning his robes.

So, Inuyasha began to recount his tale, telling of how he found them, wincing as he remembered their situation, his eyes flashing red as he remembered Kouga's smirk, and sadness creeping over his face as he remembered her words.

"And so I left, as she asked me to, and I kind of lost it," he cringed remembering his rash actions, "My demon blood toke over and I brutally murdered anything in m path. I was on a rampage, I wanted to kill, wanted someone—even if was just a plant—to feel the intense pain that I did."

A silence swept over the two as he told his tale to them. When he finished, Sango lifted her head from his clothes, now clean and dry, and walked over to him, helping him into them.

"It's ok, Inuyasha. I know Kagome has…feelings for you and will come back if you give it time." Sango reassured him gently.

"I know you deeply cared for her, but she will come back, don't worry, Inuyasha. Give her some time to cool off, and then go back and prove to her that you care about her, remind her how much she needs and loves you as well." Miroku said, rubbing Inuyasha's back as he slumped and looked at the ground.

"I do not care for her. At least…not anymore. She's with him now, and I don't care. I knew from the start she was just a weak human and could never care about a filthy hanyou such as myself." Inuyasha snarled, and spat out the last sentence with venom in his dangerous voice.

"Inuyasha!" Sango gasped, holding her hand up to her mouth.

"You know that is not true Inuyasha." Miroku said calmly.

"She is not an average human—" Sango objected, but Inuyasha interrupted her again with a low growl.

"No. She's not. I know humans. I have lived with humans all my life. They are pathetic, weak, in both body and spirit. She was no different." Inuyasha looked off into the distance, his eyes glazing over and his eyes watering, tears threatening to fall, a pained expression on his face. "Humans were cruel to me, just because of what I was. They killed my mother for having me, and tried to kill me too. My mother was different. She didn't care; she loved me for who I was. She was different. I thought Kagome was too. But I was wrong." Inuyasha ended coldly, his tears dried now, never having fallen.

"Inuyasha do not judge her because of how some other humans are! She loves you just the way you are!" Sango replied back, but Inuyasha just shook his head and glared at them. Sango was about to speak again, but Miroku stood up abruptly, and took Sango's hand.

"Come, Sango. Leave him be. He does not see the truth, because he will not let himself. We will talk to him again when he is ready to be reasonable. For now, leave him alone. Let him be sorry for himself and hate everyone." Miroku said coldly, and left the hut with Sango.

Inuyasha kicked the floor, and lay back down on the bed, closing his eyes, furious. He lay there a while, and then got up and angrily pounded the nearest chair. Then he sank to his knees, not caring is anyone saw the tears that had begun to fall, steadily turning into sobs that racked his body and made him shake violently. And there he sat.