Shikon no Go
The Language of the Shikon
A Fanfic in 100 Chapters
By DQBunny
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DISCLAIMER: This story is based off of "Kendo no Go: A Fanfic in 100 Chapters" by Akai Kitsune. Her story in turn is a parody of "In the Language of Love," a story by Diane Schoemperlen. My thanks and appreciation goes out to Akai Kitsune for letting me borrow her fic idea! "Inuyasha" is the property of Takahashi Rumiko.
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Chapter 4: Illness
The moment he touched her forehead in the middle of the night and felt the unnatural warmth radiating from it, Inuyasha knew that Kagome was sick. Something like that shook him, deep in his heart. With a tangible enemy, it was quite simple to defeat. Whip out Tessaiga, Kaze no Kizu and pow, no more enemy.
But you couldn't see an illness. You couldn't fight it like you could Naraku.
So Inuyasha took it the best way he knew how - badly.
"Damn it!" he snarled, eyes fixated on Kagome, who lay shivering under the covers on a futon across the room. He sprang to his feet. "What's up with this?"
Kagome sat up and sneezed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be so harsh! It's not like Kagome-chan enjoys having a cold," Sango scolded him.
"I know that!" he shot back. His tirade was interrupted by another fit of coughing from Kagome.
"I'm sorry everyone." Kagome leaned into Sango's supporting brace.
As the others comforted Kagome, Inuyasha looked on, impatience warring with worry. He couldn't believe how calmly everyone else was taking it. She was sick! She had a fever, she was cold and sneezing. Her skin was pale and she shivered despite having a fever. She refused the food Sango offered a couple hours earlier and even had trouble going outside to take care of her personal needs.
He trembled and turned away from her, not wanting to imagine the worse. "Damn it, hurry up and get better!"
"Inuyasha, I know you're impatient, but you don't need to blame Kagome- sama," Miroku said. Sango and Shippou chimed in their agreement.
Kagome peered at him. "I'm sorry," she said, weakly.
He stared at her, bit his lip until he tasted blood. Suddenly, Inuyasha whirled around, pushed aside the door to the hut and stomped into the yard. "I wasn't blaming her!" he yelled and ran into the forest.
He was too busy blaming himself to blame her.
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"I'll be okay, Inuyasha. Before you know it, Mama will be up and we'll play together. Have you studied your kanji?"
He trudged through the woods, reliving a memory he did his best every day to forget. He could see the young boy - just barely nine years old, standing eagerly at his mother's bedside, parchment clutched in his hand full of scrawled kana and kanji. He had no idea she was going to die.
Inuyasha closed his eyes, then punched the first thing within his reach - a tree. He heard something plop to the ground and he opened his eyes again to see some fruit lying on the ground. He crouched and picked it up. Something about it reminded him ...
Another memory flashed, this one a better one. He remembered himself and his mother standing before a cooking fire. He listened, ate up her words as she instructed him on the potion she was making.
With a grin, he picked up speed and sped through the forest. They were lucky. They had stopped about a half day's walk from Kaede's village. Most of the items he needed would be around here. He had an idea and he was going to make sure that it happened.
Because he didn't want to see someone else he loved succumb to an illness.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: All of the spoken dialogue with the exception of the line spoken by Inuyasha's mother was taken from the fansub of episode 89, "The Visitation-Confrontation between 'That Guy' and 'Him!'." It's the episode where Kagome falls sick with a cold and goes home. Inuyasha follows after getting ingredients to make a medicine for her. This is a filler episode, but IMHO, one of the best ones. "In the Language of Love" tends to skip around with its stories somewhat, coming back in later chapters to something addressed earlier in the book. The same thing happens here. I will come back to this little scenario again. The original title for this chapter was "Sickness."