Here ya go. Chapter II of Forgotten Legend.
Chapter II – Break Out
The following days had been strangely quiet. The group hadn't had much talk among themselves. Even Miroku wasn't trying that hard to grope Sango. Kirara and Shippou ceased their games during the trip. The little kitsune kept himself busy analyzing Kagome's and Inuyasha's behavior. The hanyou was usually in the front of the group, leading them mutely, and the miko would follow him a few steps back, deep in thoughts.
'Something is really wrong with Kagome.' Shippou thought, wondering if it was because of that fever. Was it really gone? Was she truly feeling well?
The boy soon got his answer. As the days passed by, Kagome slowed her pace. Before long, she was dragging her legs behind the group, trying to hide her tired panting. For being deep in thoughts and memories, Inuyasha hadn't noticed the strange behavior of his female human companion.
It had been like this for the following nine days, when...
"Can... can we rest for a while?" The young miko asked almost out of breath as she stopped in the middle of the road, her legs trembling with exhaustion.
"What? But we just started!" Inuyasha argued, and it was true. They had been walking for three hours after lunch, when they usually covered the entire afternoon walking. For their standards, three hours was little.
"I know... but..." Kagome looked up and tried to reason with the hanyou.
"Come on, Inuyasha. We all could use some rest." Sango said.
"You might be tired yourself, Inuyasha. You could use a little break too." Miroku added.
"Keh. Humans..."
Kagome sighed in relief. It seemed things were slightly turning back to normal.
"Huh? What is that?" She raised her head towards the direction they were heading.
"A village?" Sango suggested.
She guessed right. It was indeed a village, but a different one. All of its surroundings were covered in pink flowers, pouring the little town with its sweet soothing scent.
"It smells good." Kagome smiled in peace.
"It's so soothing." Sango agreed.
"Soothing? It's getting me sick." Inuyasha mumbled, covering his nose.
*AH-CHOO*
"Huh? What's wrong, Shippou?" Miroku asked.
"I... I..." *AH-CHOO* "I can't stop sneezing..." *AH-CHOO*
"Mew..." *CHOO* *CHOO*
"Kirara too?" Sango looked down at her pet demon, confused.
"Excuse me... Are you travelers?"
They turned to see a couple approaching them, gently welcoming smiles on their faces.
/\\\\\
"This house was build especially for travelers. You can stay here for as long as you need." The old man said kindly.
"Feel at home and enjoy your stay." The woman added as she and her husband left.
"Really kind villagers, don't you think Sango? Sango?" Miroku looked at the demon slayer in confusion. She was staring at the hut behind her.
"Kagome-chan? What's wrong? You're going to sleep earlier?"
The miko turned and smiled tiredly.
"Yeah, I think I am. I'm really tired today."
Inuyasha, inside the hut and sitting in a corner, watched as Kagome prepared a futon for herself, and curled inside it to rest. He now noticed something was disturbing Kagome's behavior. Even exhausted, she would stay awake with the others for a while instead of calling it a day that fast. She must be really tired... but how? Today wasn't that tiresome.
'Maybe she just needs a night inside. She rests better indoors rather than under an open sky.'
As Inuyasha looked at an empty spot of the room, he just wished that tonight they all could rest in peace.
/\\\\\
Inuyasha glared at the flower prince yokai as the pain was starting to blur his sight. He could almost feel, painfully feel, the vines touching the insides of his ribcage, stroking his very heart and lungs. The pain soon would be unbearable. But before Kaou could pull out the hanyou's heart - or pierce it, whatever he wanted to do -, a sacred arrow pierced his 'back', disintegrating the vines that composed his body.
'That arrow...' Inuyasha looked back at the arrow piercing the wall behind him. It had a blue rosary knotted around it... Miroku's protection beads... 'Damn it!" Kagome!'
He ran through the corridors at full speed, worried to death about the possibilities of what that damn bastard could do if he found out about Kagome's pains. As he exited the mansion, he growled at what he saw.
Kaou stood there with a satisfied grin, staring at a pillar of vines and blood red flowers. Stuck among the vines and flowers, Kagome struggled to free herself before her own sorrows could be used as fertilizer. But the magic was starting to dominate her, and her struggles were getting weaker and weaker.
"LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU SICK BASTARD! IT'S ME WHO YOU WANT!"
"That's where you're wrong, hanyou." Kaou smirked. "I haven't noticed before, but this girl's sorrow is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. It will be the greatest fertilizer for my beautiful flowers. Her sadness is even greater than yours."
"Inu... Yasha..." Kagome's weak pleas got both demons' attention. "Please... get me... outta... here..." She winced. "It... hurts... so much..."
Kaou smirked as the miko clenched her teeth and her muscles contracted in pain. Inuyasha growled, his eyes almost turning red with rage towards the flower prince.
"Leave... Kagome... BE!" Inuyasha tried to charge, but a barrier blocked his way. "CURSE YOU!"
"You wouldn't be feeling pain if you would just let the flowers take your sorrows. You'll soon be happy, little miko. Let the flowers bring peace to your soul. Why refuse peace?" Kaou grinned.
Kagome opened one of her eyes and stared at the flower prince, who frowned in confusion.
"What is this? What is this... barrier you have there, little miko?"
'Barrier?' Inuyasha thought in confusion.
"It doesn't matter. This weak barrier is nothing. My flowers can easily break it." Kaou brought a flower towards his lips and kissed it tenderly. Almost immediately, Kagome cried out in pain, and Inuyasha stared in horror as red golden lines of fire started burning a pattern on Kagome's chest, in the shape of a star.
"NO! LEAVE HER ALONE!" Unsheathing his mighty sword, the blade flashing bloody red, Inuyasha charged at the barrier, eyes almost red. The barrier was easily broken, and Inuyasha shot himself against Kaou like a bullet. "YOU'LL PAY FOR HURTING KAGOME, YOU BASTARD!"
When the hanyou came closer, Kaou turned himself into a mass of vines again, standing between the miko and the half demon. Seeing that his barrier was useless this time, the flower prince spread his vines to protect his sacrifice.
Inuyasha growled in despair, seeing Kagome starting to give up. Whatever barrier Kagome had to protect herself, Kaou had smashed it like a bug. And would do the same to her very soul if he didn't do something about it.
"Take a look, hanyou." Kaou smirked. "She's not even shedding tears yet, and my flowers are blooming like they had never before."
Inuyasha looked up to see a huge bloody red flower slowly blooming at the top of the pillar. Many smaller ones bloomed around him, including the pillar.
"So much pain... and to think that the source of this pain is-..."
Kaou was interrupted when a blinding pinkish white light appeared behind him, along with some hot, almost burning sensation. By the half demon's look, it was something big.
However, before the flower prince could look back, whatever was that hot pinkish light behind him exploded into purification golden fire, vaporizing his flowers and slowly eating away his creepy looking body.
It all happened really fast, too fast for even a cry of pain to be shed by the demon. Inuyasha widened his eyes with what he was seeing. First, he saw Kagome go limb, and her chin touched her chest. Then her entire body started glowing with pinkish light, which was growing hotter and hotter. And all of a sudden, an explosion of fire engulfed the clearing. He had no choice but to jump back a few times to avoid being purified to the bones. He didn't know if the fire would hurt Kagome. It couldn't purify her, since she was already pure. But it was fire anyway. Could it burn her?
As he landed, a safe distance between him and the flames, he shielded his eyes from the light, waiting impatiently for the phenomenon to end.
After a few minutes, the light faded away, and he looked around, seeing a nude clearing in the place of the mansion surrounded by flowers. The sweet scent that had been getting him sick was gone, along with the odor of that bastard Kaou. All he could see was the beaten grass and a few branches on the ground.
But if the bastard and its cursed weeds were gone, then where was...?
"Kagome!" The half demon shot towards a body clad in white and green, laying still on the ground, the same spot where she had been held prisoner by the column of vines, now a hole behind the miko's body.
The miko's eyes opened when her name was called. Very dizzily, she tried to lift her head and look around, but her sight was too blurry, her balance wobbly and her body weakened.
"Kagome, are you ok? Please, tell me you're ok!" Inuyasha pleaded, kneeling beside the girl to confirm she wasn't hurt. He helped her to sit up and searched for injuries.
She raised one hand to her head, trying to soothe the dizziness. Light marks 'adorned' her ankles, wrists and neck from the vine's grip. Around her body, on the floor, burned a thin line of ember as if to protect her. Her eyes seemed a bit lighter than normal, almost like sapphires, but they were slowly turning back to their natural stormy blue color.
"Yes, I... I guess I'm fine." She tried to stand up on her own, her legs shaking with weakness. Inuyasha held her around the waist to help her gain balance, but he saw by the way her eyes closed tight that she couldn't walk. Her body seemed warmer than normal too.
"I'm getting you outta here." He scooped her up on his arms and took a final glance around him, recording in mind the unnatural phenomenon that happened right here.
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