†{ A Rose by Any Other Name… }†
x{ 04: Marvel-of-Peru}x
-•°•°•-
Gold danced with fading glimmers of ruby to the symphony of constant crackles, the heat that flowed from the fusion was plentiful, more than enough for the groggy group of five. Another dismal day had passed without a sighting of even a demon, let alone a shard, and not a trace of the fiend they sought, either. When did everything become so uneventful in the feudal era? That was only one of the many thoughts that boggled the bemused girl from the future's mind as she stared endlessly at the flames before her, her arms wrapped around her risen legs and her chin upon her knees.
"Yes, it was bothersome," weakly caught her attention out of all the other mundane talk she had been tuning out, "sometime I wish I didn't have such strange features but for the most part I am thankful. If not for it I wouldn't be who I am today."
Her hazels finally rose all the way from the campfire to the red haired priestess across from her, "were you teased?"
Tamako's brown eyes with a tinge of orange—that was only brought out by the flicker of the fire and tint of her hair—moved from the hanyou at her left to the girl across from her, "yes, often. It's nothing to complain about. It's just… people make fun of that which is different."
"Just because your hair is an abnormal color you were made fun of?" She was sure that happened but for some reason it was hard to grasp—no, actually, it wasn't. People were mean, that's that, and a simple fact of life. It was what that implied, what that meant, that was difficult for her to accept.
"Mm-hm, children and adults alike thought that I was part demon or something or that I was somehow not human because of it, more importantly, it's supposed to be a sign that I am unlucky and everyone assumes that means that anyone that associated with me would be, too." Tamako shrugged, "it's alright. I think that it made me a better person and it is what led me to become a priestess, too."
They could connect—her and Inuyasha—over a tormenting childhood, over taunts about features they could not control, over more than she ever could with him… that was what she refused to process, though, it should not be like that. She had no intention of trying to win his affections from the deserving Tamako, really… she didn't.
"It's not your fault," Kagome assured, "it's just a very rare genetic trait for the Japanese. It's a recessive gene and," but she stopped herself when she saw the deer-in-headlights look she was getting from everyone. Of course, she had to remember where she was, "that means… that it is natural, it happens, you are human, it's not some unlucky stigma, it's actually very sort of lucky that both your parents possessed the proper traits to pass it down to you."
For quite some time Tamako just stared at the stranger girl on the other side of the flames before she smiled and laughed, "thank you, Kagome-san, I'm not so sure what all that means but I know you mean well."
She meekly gave one flash of a smile before her hazels just returned to the warm sensation in front of her, she had tried. A sudden rustling in the bushes beside her caught everyone's attention but she guessed it was nothing to worry about since Inuyasha did not tense up or reach for his sword. Instead of some monstrosity popping out of the greenery a little bitty white puppy with big blue eyes and a black strip around all four of its legs and two tails appeared to give Kagome the cutest tilt of the head.
"How cute!" She exclaimed giddily as she caught the puppy into her hands and raised it above her head, "so very, very adorable!"
"Greetings, Hirohito, how are you?" Tamako giggled, "it appears you have made a new friend."
"You know him?" Kagome inquired, "he's so cute!"
"I think we got that from the first fifty times you said it," Inuyasha muttered only to be elbowed in the side by Tamako and given a rather stern look, to which he just scoffed and glanced away bitterly.
"Sango!" A young cry called out just as Kohaku jumped over the brush, "we thought it had to be you! Hirohito rarely reacts like that otherwise."
"Kohaku," Sango smiled in return as she waved her brother over to sit beside her, swiftly they embraced, "I am so pleased to see you. Are you alone?"
"Of course not, everyone else is just slower than me."
"That's not it!" A gruff of a voice grunted before a muscular, bald man walked out from behind the trees, "you are just a little monkey!"
"He is only eager to see his sister, no need to insult," a tall, lanky, long raven haired man explained as he walked into sight.
"Who isn't?" A debonairly handsome man inquired with a charming smile as he followed suit to sit on the other side of Sango, "it has been too long. You know how cruel it is on my heart to go so long without a single sighting of you, Sango."
"Oh, Rensei, you worry too much," she replied with a subtle smile, one of her arms still around Kohaku's shoulder, "Muro, Takashi, sit down already. Where is Nagasai?"
"He should be here shortly," Rensei replied before her dark, dazzling, eyes landed upon the foreign girl in an ever so strange outfit whom his comrades sat beside.
"Hello," she muttered as she brushed a dangling strand of her livid loose curls behind her ear, "I'm Kagome."
"Oh," he awed, "I have heard about you! You are the girl from another land, the one who brought back the shikon no tama and then disappeared? It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I'm Rensei."
"Takashi," the lanky one nodded.
"Muro," Mr. Muscular recognized.
"Nagasai," the only truly normal looking one bowed as he walked over to take the last seat in between Muro and Inuyasha.
"It's nice to meet all of you," she assured.
Then it went back to as if she wasn't there, which she was earnestly fine with. She enjoyed watching the normal scene unfold, to hear the laughs of her friends and watch as they socialized. It was like new life was brought to the group by the addition of the slayer sec. Shippou bounced about, Kirara and Hirohito frolicked, everyone seemed so happy… it was a refreshing sight, one she was more than willing to just sit back and enjoy with a smile.
x-•°•°•-x
It was decided at daybreak—when they were all forced to get up so they could carry on their way by Rensei and Inuyasha—that the two groups would join together for a while. No harm could come of it, and Kohaku did not try to hide the fact that he missed being around his sister nor did the others from the slayer squad. The more the merrier, the saying went, and, more importantly, ten and two little animal demons would be more beneficial if a battle broke out than half that.
"We have come across quite a few demons," Rensei confessed while he walked side-by-side with Sango, "but none with jewel shards."
"They are so difficult to find lately," Sango lamented.
For once, Kagome was not alone in the back of the group, Nagasai and Takashi walked beside her but rarely said a thing. She lifted her fingers up to the shards that she still had dangling from around her neck, she could tell that Tamako had a few more than she did, and if they combined their shards—like Inuyasha always bickered about—then they might posses about a half of the jewel. If it was getting rarer and rarer to come across a shard, even with someone like Tamako who could detect the jewel's presences, did that really mean Naraku, too, possessed half the jewel? She shivered at the very thought of what he would do with such power.
That horror was stricken from her mind when she noticed Rensei's hand brush against Sango's, who gave him a fleeting smile in return, "they seem close," Kagome mumbled mostly to herself.
"Sango and Rensei?" Takashi inquired, "of course they are. Do you not know?"
"Know what?" She asked, her gaze glanced between Takashi and Nagasai who shared a meaningful look before they both turned their stares to her.
"They've been betrothed since childhood, Rensei's family was the second most prestigious in our village," Takashi explained.
"Their parents were close, so it was decided early on the Sango and Rensei would wed. They are the same age, same social status, it was fitting. It would have been a fierce union," Nagasai recollected with nostalgia upon his face as he stared up at the blue sky, "when our village was… still alive, it would have been perfect, too. Sango's clearly very skilled and Rensei was quite possibly the best out of the entire village, to have the two marry and take over as leaders… it would have been great."
"W… wait," she stuttered, "Sango… and him are getting married? Really?"
"Truly," Takashi assured, "right, Sango?"
"Huh?" Said mahogany eyed girl replied as she turned her head to look back at the trio lagging behind, she quickly caught the stun on the girl's face and raised a brow, "are you two being rude?"
"That's insulting, Sango," Nagasai frowned, "we have manners, unlike Muro."
"Hey!" The bald man in the lead growled back, "I heard that!"
"This girl here didn't know you and Rensei are betrothed," Takashi explained with a tilt of his head towards Kagome.
"Did you not tell your friend?" Rensei questioned with a smile before he looked over at her, "we will, as soon as we take revenge on Naraku. Then we shall find a way to bring back the glory of our village."
He seemed so certain, so assure of himself, of their fate, and not necessarily in the chauvinistic, cruel sense, which struck Kagome as deeply odd. Rensei was anything but dull looking, seemingly intelligent, apparently a fine fighter, and a childhood friend of Sango's so, honestly, she shouldn't feel so shocked but… but… what happened to Miroku and her? Sure, they had never openly admitted their feelings for one another but there was simply no denying the fact that there were feelings, deep ones at that. Were they made null by Rensei's reappearance? Did Sango love him the most?
"It's true," Sango stated, automatically earning her the bewildered hazel gaze of her former friend but she disregarded it to return her attention to the laughing Kohaku and Shippou.
She didn't look upset, she didn't have a hint of distaste in her tone over the idea, so then did that mean it was mutual? Poor Miroku, she couldn't help but think. Luckily, or not so luckily, a figure ahead of them caught all their attention, which meant that such thoughts were purged from the perplexed girl's already distraught mind.
"Please…" the old man wheezed before he collapsed in front of them, "help…"
"What's wrong?" Tamako sped as she dropped to her knees to examine the bloody, battered body, "tell us, who did this to you?"
"Bandits," the man swallowed, "attacked our village… their raiding it… raping… killing, please help…"
"We have to go," Sango demanded as she grasped her weapon's leather strap.
"Inuyasha," Tamako frowned as she glanced up to him, "Sango's right, we have to go help them… there is nothing I can do for this man, he is not going to live much longer."
"Alright," Inuyasha nodded, "you stay here with him, then. Muro, stay and protect her, the rest of us will go to the village. I can smell the burning and blood all the way from here, it's gotta be bad."
"Got it," Muro nodded as he took his stance next to Tamako as she tried her best to tend to the man's extensive wounds. She knew she could not save him; all she could do is try to make his last moments more comfortable by assuring him over and over again about how her friends would save his village.
"And kill the monsters… all of them?" Kagome barely heard the man's meek words as she headed off with the rest of them, she couldn't help but glance back to see Tamako's pained look at his request, even from a distance Kagome could hear her reply, and the guilt mixed aversion she felt about saying it, "… yes."
"Inuyasha," Kagome shouted as soon as they got to the outskirt of the half burnt village with a disarray of individuals running around, chuckling vile men chasing frightened females, others slaughtering any who tried to defend them.
When the hanyou glanced back at her she got the feeling he had forgotten she was even there to start out with, "you should have stayed with Tamako, it's," but he stopped himself. She could guess what he was going to say, what he so often used to tell her, 'it's too dangerous' but now it didn't matter, did it? He didn't care if she was in peril, it was her own fault.
"If I stayed I would not be able to tell you there is a jewel shard here, now would I?" She retorted and right away a gleam appeared in his golden gaze.
"Where?"
"Over there," she pointed in the center of the village as the others jumped into action to ward off the bandits, all knocking out the foolish, disgusting humans instead of killing them.
"Show me," Inuyasha demanded as he began forward, knocking out any bandit that got in his or her way.
"That man," she asserted when she finally saw the rather feminine—in her opinion, at least—looking man, a make-up wearer at that, sitting upon a bench drinking sake and relishing in the mayhem around him, "in the middle of his chest, it's lodged in his body."
"Finally," Inuyasha grinned as he unsheathed his sword, "he's a demon, stay back, got it? Go help the others. I can take care of this."
She would protest but it was Inuyasha so not only would that not penetrate his thick skull as he charged at the demon that just looked at him with mild amusement but it would be no use for her to really stay, too. Who could ever defeat Inuyasha? It was just a demon, and he only had one, tiny jewel shard, she could recall many times before when Inuyasha had taken down far worse enemies and to top it off, he probably only grew stronger over the three years of her absence so she sighed and hoped for the best as she slowly moved away.
Of course, that didn't mean she kept her eyes off of him and the fight that broke out.
"Are you alright?" Kagome inquired as she crouched down beside a maiden spewed across the ground, a dazed look upon her dirt covered face and a hallow haze over her eyes as she looked up to Kagome. Obviously she wasn't, and she did feel a bit foolish for asking, but what else was she to say? How badly are you hurt? Came to mind right as she watched her shake her head. The more she looked over the woman the less she wondered what happened to her, her kimono was ripped, her thighs bruised along with her neck.
One blaring answer appeared to her, she pressed her lips and furrowed her brows before she looked around at the chaos her comrades were working on taming, "who did this to you?"
"Some of them… all of them… I do not remember."
Some, really? Did a single woman need to experience such a trauma multiple times? She could feel the festering fury swirl in her chest as she closed her eyes and grasped her hand tightly around the shards she wore around her neck, trying her best to calm herself and slay the sick feeling that was rioting within her but how was that possible when she knew that this woman was not the only one lying broken on the floor?
She opened her eyes and pulled her bow out to block an attempt on her life and push the wood spear away so she could stand and knee the man with all her might in the one area it would affect him the most, he squealed like a pig and grasped his groins as he fell to the ground much to her delight. Really, she didn't think it was in poor taste to slam her boot into his skull just once, just enough to make him bleed and pulse with more pain. If anything, it was a crime against her fine footwear.
"Very well done," Rensei proclaimed from beside her, "I was thinking I'd have to stop that, but you noticed it. Are you good with a bow and arrow?"
"I try," she replied as she glanced over to the fight that was moving farther and farther from them, she assumed that was by Inuyasha's doing. He probably wanted to keep the damage and danger away from the village and those within it, "but… I don't think I should really shot them with an arrow… do you?"
"They are human," Rensei nodded, "terrible people, but human…"
"And what will they do once they get up?" Since everyone was only knocking them out, "go back to doing all this just somewhere else where we are not there to stop them? Where others like us aren't?"
"Do you think that killing them is the answer? Respond to murder with murder?" Rensei inquired; there was no malice in his voice, no judgmental stare. It was almost as if in the midst of all the mayhem they were having a simple enlightened conversation. One that they didn't have the time for, and were quickly made aware of that when a large man tried to stab Rensei.
But if they were demons, you'd be killing them all, she couldn't help but ponder as they broke apart. Then she was truly at a loss for what to do, stay around and try and help all those wounded while the others fought? But then she'd have her guard down, so did that mean she should help out? But how, she really was only gifted at bow and arrow, she could use her spiritual power to zap a few but… she sighed and glanced over one last time to where Inuyasha was fading off to.
His sword was knocked away by the demon but it didn't seem to break his concentration on the battle. She might have sprinted over there to help if a trio of bothersome bandits didn't trying to get their grubby hands on her at the very same time. All of them were knocked down before she could think of a way of fighting them by a large spinning, familiar, bone boomerang.
"Thanks, Sango," she replied and to her surprise Sango actually gave her a nod before going over to help her brother.
"Kagome-san!" Caught her interest next, she already knew it was Tamako as she turned her head to watch the frantic priestess run her way, "where's Inuyasha? He's fighting the one with the shikon shard, isn't he?"
"Yep," she replied with a nod, "but don't worry, it's Inuyasha after all."
"I don't know," Tamako frowned as she grasped the fabric in front of her chest, "I have a really bad feeling…"
She meant to comfort her, to say that worrying was pointless, but a shriek caught their attention and both their eyes snapped over to the scene far away as the demon was shred to pieces, tinier and tinier ones with each strike of Inuyasha's claws. They both had the anxiety in the pit of their stomachs, the fear over what had happened, before he turned to head over to them and confirm their suspicions.
"He's in his demon form," Tamako exclaimed with stunned eyes and glanced to Kagome, "he lost his sword?"
Somehow the very thought didn't cross her mind when she watched it being knocked form his hand, didn't he only transform when he was in terrible danger? When his life was on the line? She didn't think that demon could be that big of a threat to him, sword or no sword, "yeah."
"We have to find it and get it back to him," Tamako declared as she began off in search.
The blood bath started once he reached the village again and for some reason she couldn't move as she watched him tear apart bandit after bandit, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve… Muro, Takashi, and Rensei tried to stop him, to keep him at bay but that didn't work, they were only knocked to the side, Muro was even clawed. Sango seemed at a loss for what to do, too, but she decided to try and through her weapon at Inuyasha to at least slow him.
Regrettably, not only did that not work but it only seemed to irk him more as he turned his growling attention to her and Kohaku.
"Inuyasha," Kagome finally said, breaking herself free of the daze that had taken her as she took a few steps closer to him.
"Kagome, don't!" Sango shouted, "he really cannot recognize anyone in this state! Please stay back!"
But she didn't stop, she lifted her hands slowly to show she didn't have anything and just as cautiously took a few more steps, he turned his attention to her and cracked his fingers with his taunting, blood cover claws that matched his crimson eyes flawlessly, but none of that was as intimidating as his rather sadistic smirk.
"Inuyasha…" she mumbled, he took a step closer to her with his growing grin, before she stated swiftly, "sit!"
Just like all the times before, he slammed to the ground with quite the thud.
"Inuyasha," Tamako gasped as she quickly ran over to drop to her knees and swiftly grasped one of his hands and clenched it around Tessaiga's handle, "Inuyasha?"
"Damn it!" He cursed once he pried he face out of the ground, "I still hate that, Kagome!"
She'd almost laugh at that if not for the fact her attention lied on the worry struck priestess, the relief that cascaded across her face when she saw that Inuyasha had returned to his senses and the warm smile she gave him as he got up.
She… really cares about him, she lamented while she glanced away, inadvertently to the series of still warm corpses. If he's anything like he used to be, which she knew he was, he's going to be upset about this…
x-•°•°•-x
No matter how many times he amerced his hands in the water and fervently rubbed them together he couldn't get the blood out from below his nails, he grinded his teeth together all the more at that and cursed under his breath. He didn't mean to… he didn't, he never would…
"Inuyasha?" He tensed up right away at the subtle sound of his name from behind him, back on the bank of the small stream he had found. Really, there was only one person stupid enough to bother him at a moment like that and it was also the one person he didn't want to see the most.
"Go away," he growled back without even bothering to look over at her.
Everyone told her not to, everyone, even Tamako said to leave him alone for some time but… Kagome couldn't, she knew it would annoy him, probably only make him more angry with her, but at least then he'd be mad at her and not himself. She needed a break from tending to all the victims of the bandits horrid deeds, too. "Inuyasha—"
"I said, go away!" He barked as he clenched his fists tightly almost too the point of piercing his skin.
"What are you doing?"
"Damn it, Kagome, go away! It's not a hard concept; you're good at it, too!"
Ouch, she could feel a sting from that one but she just pressed her lips together as she set her loyal side-bag down before she began to remove her boots and roll up her jeans. She paused one moment to take out that ever so useful brush before she ventured into the crisp and cool water.
"You are the most annoying person in the whole goddamn world!" Inuyasha grunted as he turned to glare at her, "I don't want you here."
"Alright," she replied softly, "I just want to give you something, okay? This," she wiggled the little white brush, "helps get stuff out from below your nails. I figure you must have a lot of trouble with that since yours are so long."
For a fleeting moment his gaze softened on her but just as quickly it returned to the way it was as he snatched the brush from her hands and turned his back to her once more, "now go away."
"Fine," she sighed but she didn't get more than a step back when she noticed how confounded he was over how to use the brush properly. "Here," she started as she snatched it back and took one of his hands to dip it down in the water, "like this," she was rather a pro at it, she knew how hard to scrub, how to angle it, and how to brush the blood out from the cuticles and rigid between where the skin met the nail where a great amount of crimson liquid liked to hide. At first, he protested but gave up when she took his other hand to do the same to it.
While her eyes were upon the task at hand, his couldn't help but wander up to her surreal and calm look, a subtle smile on her lips as she worked. She didn't much look like the same adolescent that he knew, she had matured and even the dense hanyou could pick up on that if not from anything other than just her looks.
Her hands were on his…
Swiftly, his golden gaze shifted away from her when she glanced up to him, "done."
"Keh," he muttered as he shook his hands off and began off towards the bank but, to her surprise, instead of heading back to the village he just sat down and even allowed her to do the same beside him without gripping.
"Inuyasha…" she began in a mutter as she rested her arms around her loosely lifted legs.
"What?" he grumbled back while he folded his over his chest, just as he always did, and shut his eyes with a scowl on his face still.
"You feel bad… about what you did, don't you? Guilty?"
"I don't want to talk about it, got it?" He snapped, "just shut up."
"You shouldn't—"
"Tamako already told me, alright? I shouldn't beat myself up about it 'cause it wasn't me, it was my demon side, blah, blah, blah, I've heard it all before so shut the hell up, I don't need to hear it from you," he snarled with furrowed brows as he stared at the colorful fusion in the distance caused by the setting sun.
"I wasn't going to say that," she assured, her gaze slowly moved from the oddly red sky to Inuyasha, "I was going to say… you wouldn't have felt any remorse if they were all demons, right?"
He cocked his brow at that and glared over at her but didn't say a thing.
"They were demons, Inuyasha," she couldn't emphasize that anymore as she grasped her hands together, "they were monsters, the worse type. You shouldn't feel bad; they were all murdering, raping thieves. It's not like they were good people."
"They were human…" he coaxed.
"So?" She retorted, "humans can be just as bad as demons, if not worse. Really," she couldn't help but let a dry 'ha' out, "humans can do a lot worse to each other than a demon could. You probably saved a lot of lives, Inuyasha, a lot of woman, too. You shouldn't feel bad because they deserved to die."
The wrinkles upon his forehead from his bent brows only deepened before he scolded, "that's not what the Kagome I knew would say."
"Really?" She inquired as her gaze met with his, a rather innocent blankness upon her façade, "what would the Kagome you knew say, then?"
"What's wrong with you?" He scowled, "why are you saying these things?"
"Because that's how I feel," she shrugged as she looked back out at the leisurely descending sun, "I don't think you should feel good about it but I really, really, really don't think you should feel bad about it, either."
She ignored whatever surely crude thing he muttered in response before she allowed a hush to flow over them.
x-•°•°•-x
"I…" he began after the sun finally drowned into darkness. He slowly open and closed his hand as he stared at it as if it was a repulsive object, "I can still smell the blood."
A frown penetrated her lips as she looked over at his contorted features, "I think I have something that might help." She turned to her bag and dug her hands through the bag until she found the little container she was searching for, she popped the cap and took one of his hands before squirting just enough hand sanitizer on his and then some on hers too. Cleanliness was next to godliness, after all, and it was oh-so hard to hygienic in such a time period. Unfortunately, she was starting to run low on the wondrous stuff.
"This smells horrible," he complained with a wrinkled nose after he finished rubbing it in.
"At least your hands are clean now," she countered.
"I don't like this smell either," he grumbled more as he turned his cheek in protest.
"So problematic," she muttered, "I guess I have another thing, too." There really was no pleasing him, but she supposed that was pretty much how he had always been so she sighed as she rummaged through her bag once more to find a different, larger, plastic unit and pulled it out. "Here, it's lotion."
He just cocked his brow at that but took it all the same, squirting far too much on his hand in the process.
"Don't," she sped when she saw he was just going to whip it off on the ground, "that's wasteful!"
"What am I supposed to do then?" He gripped.
She couldn't allow her lotion to go to waste; she wouldn't be getting any more of it after all, so she took his hand and slowly began to rub her hands to his. Her hands were feeling a little dry. He was wide-eyed over the action, at how she slowly rubbed the ointment onto each of their hands, she even slid her fingers in-between his but she didn't think twice about it.
"Inuyasha," she murmured as she weakly clasped her hands around his and lifted her soft hazels to meet his gaze, "do you hate me? I can take anyone but you hating me…"
His eyes just locked with hers for sometime before he glanced away and took his hands back, "now my hands smell girlish."
"It is calla lilies and lavender," she frowned, "I like it."
"'Cause you're a girl," he grumbled.
"Obviously," she muttered back, her eyes lightly on him as he folded his arms into his sleeves and got up without a word to head back to the village. He couldn't even answer the question… was that a yes, then? Wouldn't it have been easy to say 'no' if that was the case?
"Keh, come on, don't just sit there like a moron," Inuyasha scoffed with a nod of his head.
A smile swiftly lifted her lips as she slung her bag over her shoulder and picked up her boots, just maybe things were getting back to the way they once were? Just a little, at least. "I'm coming," she chimed as she popped up to follow him back to all the others.
{~¤°•.¤°•.¤°•.¤°•.¤°•.~}
Dimness dwindled closer to the glimmering glass container that hid the twinkling brittle ruby rose, the fusion of darkness to light etched closer about the only rich radiant glow, soon it would drawn out the luminous as another petal fell.
Marvel of Peru: Flame of Love