The morning dawned, gray and overcast, the clouds heavy with the threat of impending rain. Miroku looked out of the open shoji door and sighed. "It looks like it's going to rain today," he informed the rest of the group. Sango got up from where she had been sitting and went over to stand beside Miroku, but not before shifting her Hiraikotsu to her left shoulder to provide a barrier between her butt and the houshi's cursed hand.
"You're right," she agreed, "The clouds do look ominous today. I hope it won't interfere too much with our travels."
Shippou peeked his emerald eyes out from beneath the blanket under which he was huddling. "Do we have to go out in the rain?" he whined. "I don't like traveling in the cold and wet."
InuYasha looked at him, his eyes irritable as he snapped, "Stop your fuckin' whining! D'you think the rest of us wanna travel in this weather?" The hanyou was not in the best of moods that morning. All through the night his head had been filled with images of Kagome in the hot-spring and what she had said. Both factors had combined into a restlessness that had not allowed InuYasha to get any sleep.
Kagome reached down and gently rubbed the hanyou's ears. "Don't worry, Yamainu," she soothed, although the worry in her voice was rather off-setting. "I'm sure it won't rain too hard."
InuYasha snorted. "I've never been afraid of fuckin' rain. I ain't a baby."
Kagome smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes at all. InuYasha knew that she was thinking about him, and about the fact that he still wasn't 'back' yet. He nudged her hand with his nose, and she started scratching his ears again. 'Damn, I guess it's too much to hope that she finds this as comforting as I do,' he thought as he resisted the urge to roll over on his back and show Kagome his belly. That would be an embarrassing thing to explain over when he was normal again. 'If I'm ever normal again,' he thought wistfully as the innkeepers brought in breakfast; stewed meats and vegetables from the smell of it. Luckily for him, though, the innkeepers gave him some meat instead of a bone, which he gobbled down gratefully.
"You still upset?" InuYasha turned to see Kirara looking at him, her bright red eyes curious.
"Fuck yeah. It's been nearly two days since I was turned into a dog, and there's no sign of a cure for me," he replied, licking his chops as he rested his head on his paws and looked out into the rain. "Not only that, but Kagome thinks I abandoned her for Kikyou, and I don't have the words to tell her otherwise."
"Write?" Kirara asked, her tails waving as she leaped onto his shoulders and looked down into his eyes. InuYasha had to think for a bit before he could figure out what the nekomata meant.
"No, I can't write. My mother taught me a little, but..." the hanyou blushed beneath his fur as he admitted, "I've forgotten how to do it."
Kirara made a small growling noise in her throat, which he took to be the neko equivalent of a 'hmm.' Then, he felt her furry shoulders shrug a little. "Then...I not know how help you," she said, a touch of sadness in her voice. "But...hope. Keep hope. Without hope, InuYasha become Yamainu for all time."
InuYasha shuddered inwardly at the thought. He would rather climb up a mountain with boulders strapped to each and every one of his limbs, face a thousand youkai while in human form, be tied down in a field of rotten garlic with no nose-plug, than be a dog for the rest of his days. For starters, his life-span had been shortened by several hundred years. Kagome had once told him (while they were both in the Sengoku jidai) that the oldest dog in the world had lived to be twenty-one years old. Twenty-one years. InuYasha had lived for nearly ten times that long and had only aged about sixteen, maybe seventeen years. (Then again, the fifty years that he was bound to the tree probably didn't count.) But to face the prospect of only a few decades? Unthinkable!
Not only that, but InuYasha had no youkai power. How was he supposed to go through life as an ordinary dog? He couldn't just be Kagome's pet for the rest of his life (no matter how appealing the idea actually was, to be quite honest) and she was bound to catch onto him sooner or later. And what then? Would she forgive him for the scare he'd given her, or for the things he shouldn't have heard or seen?
"You're right, Kirara," he told the nekomata. "I can't give up hope."
"Good," she purred. "That more like InuYasha we love."
It rained for about an hour after that, and the group decided to stay inside while the rain splattered against the ground outside. Miroku wrote more ofuda while Sango sharpened her katana, occasionally glaring at the houshi to make sure he was still writing ofuda and not stalking her bottom. Shippou was coloring with the crayons Kagome had given him, his tongue poking out from between his teeth as he carefully penned himself out onto the paper. Kagome sat next to him, trying to study her mathematics, but failing when she glanced up every so often to gaze out at the rainy scenery beyond the shoji door and letting out a sigh when she caught no glance of scarlet and silver. InuYasha was sitting beside Kagome, peering over her shoulder to see if he could make head or tail of what she was studying. After reading the first equation, however, he quickly gave up and started pacing around the room, restless and edgy. Kirara decided to ride on his shoulders, providing someone to talk to, although their conversations were brief and repetitive.
"You stop pacing. Will get on humans' nerves."
"I'm too fuckin' energized to stop pacing. Why don't you go bother Shippou or something?"
In the end, Kagome put the math book away and picked up one of Shippou's toys, which appeared to be a wooden ball that had been painted bright red. "Yamainu," she called, "Fetch!" With a small heave, Kagome threw the ball to the corner of the room.
Instinct overwhelmed thought, sending InuYasha charging toward the red ball, tongue flopping out from between his teeth as he chased the ball, snapped it up, and returned to Kagome, his paws akimbo as he panted excitedly. Then, as Kagome pryed the ball out from between his teeth, InuYasha realized what he had done and felt completely embarrassed. It was rare for his inu instincts to get the better of him, but when they did, the results were often hilarious for the onlookers, but humiliating for the hanyou.
Kagome laughed, and her laugh was not high and false, like it usually was when she was on edge, but a true laugh of pure joy. "You liked that, huh, Yamainu?" she giggled as she rubbed his ears and neck.
"...Yes," InuYasha admitted, his tail retreating between his legs as his ears lowered in shame.
Kagome took note and fixed the hanyou with a worried stare. "Are you all right, Yamainu? Did I hurt you?"
"Fuck no!" InuYasha's head jerked up, his ears returning to normal as his tail resumed its wagging. "I'm...fuck, I'm fine, all right? It's just that I let my fuckin' instincts get the better of me!"
"Cheered up miko, though," Kirara pointed out as she wove herself between InuYasha's forepaws (she had been thrown off of his back when InuYasha started to chase the ball).
InuYasha brightened a little at this. "Yeah, you have a point there." So he decided to, at least for the time being, fuck his pride and cheer Kagome up. He stretched out his front paws and let his rump stay in the air, tail wagging madly as his tongue flopped out of his mouth. Kagome smiled at him and threw the ball again. He chased it again as instinct took over once more, tongue flying out of his mouth as he went for the ball. However, he couldn't find it. The inu part of him suffered severe disappointment at the loss of the plaything and drove him to start sniffing around the edge of the room, looking for the lost ball. Behind him, he could hear Kirara's mewing laughs.
"What the fuck is so funny?" he barked, turning back to fix the nekomata with a glare.
"Miko not throw ball, baka inu!" she laughed.
InuYasha's jaw flopped open in disbelief. In a few bounds, he was next to Kagome, who, now that he was looking at her, had one hand held behind her back. "You fell for it, Yamainu," she giggled, and held out the ball for his inspection.
"Kami dammit," he groaned as he sank to the floor, his paws covering his eyes as his ears were regaled with the resounding laughs from not only Kagome and Kirara, but Miroku, Sango, and Shippou as well, who had started watching him after Kagome had thrown the ball the first time.
"Hey, the rain stopped!" Shippou cried, jumping up as he pointed excitedly toward the shoji door. Indeed, the sun was shining brightly in a halfway cleared sky, the drops of rain on the grass and leaves outside glittering like diamonds in the golden light.
"I guess it's time for us to be going then," Miroku said as he picked up the stack of ofuda and tucked them into his robes. Everyone bustled to get their things together, checking and double-checking to make sure that they didn't leave anything behind.
InuYasha watched his friends hurrying about with a rather sour expression fixed on his furry face. "Some friends. Laughing at my foolishness," he grumbled.
Kirara looked down at him from her perch atop his head and mewed, "Cheered up miko, though."
InuYasha looked at Kagome, who did seem to be a little bit happier now than she did before. A goofy grin spread over his muzzle as he said, "Yeah...I guess I did."
"Make it worth it?"
"...Yeah."
It was not too long afterward that the group set out on the road again. This time, they had decided to walk rather than fly or run. The reason behind this decision was unspoken, but InuYasha knew that it was because they were still waiting for him to 'arrive,' and since the rain had washed all traces of their scent away, the group wanted to give InuYasha some way of finding them easily.
InuYasha's continued 'absence' was weighing heavily on Kagome. InuYasha saw that the little piece of happiness he'd given her by playing with the ball had gone away almost as soon as they'd started out on the road. She constantly looked over her shoulder, sighing when she realized that there was no hanyou following them. The distant look was back in her eyes, and InuYasha knew that Kagome was wondering if he'd gone to Kikyou. "Dammit, how am I gonna convince her that I'm right here and I would never leave her without telling her first?" he growled as his paws squished and slipped around in the squishy mud, which was not drying quite fast enough for his tastes.
"Can't," Kirara said, looking at him from her place on Miroku's shoulder, where she was currently resting. "Can't convince miko until you return."
"But I can't 'return' until I get this fuckin' spell off of me!" he snarled grumpily.
"Exactly." Kirara turned away at that moment, her face turned in the direction of the climbing sun. Kagome had stopped too, her face also pointing in the direction of the West. Her entire body was as stiff and straight as a ruler, her eyes more focused than they had been in several days.
"What is it, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked, doubling back as he regarded Kagome with an expert eye.
"I...I can sense shikon-no-kakera," she murmured, her eyes focusing on that which only she could see.
Everybody in the group tensed; Sango readied her Hiraikotsu, Miroku's hand clenched on his Shakujou, Kirara transformed into her giant fiery self and Shippou wailed as he ducked into the fur lining the scruff of Kirara's neck. "Dammit, some fuckin' youkai's coming and I'm a fuckin' dog!" InuYasha yowled, even as he lowered himself to the ground and bared his fangs. What his puny dog-strength could do, he didn't know, but InuYasha wasn't about to give up without a fight or run away with his tail between his legs.
"Do you know how many shards are there, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked urgently, her eyes scanning the foliage for any signs of youkai.
Kagome's brow furrowed as her eyes followed the path of the shikon-no-kakera and dissected the aura around them. 'Two shards...moving very fast...oh, Kami-'
"It's Kouga-kun!" she shouted.
The group's tension did not lessen. On the contrary, everyone became more tense as Sango rapped out, "Kagome-chan, get behind Kirara. Miroku, you and I should stand guard on either side of her, okay?" The houshi nodded his understanding and quickly moved to his post. InuYasha growled deeply, his hackles raising as the look in his eyes became positively venomous. Of course the idiot ōkami would notice immediately that InuYasha wasn't there, which he would interpret as leaving Kagome up for grabs. As to what Kouga would do then...
'No...I won't let him!' The growl in InuYasha's throat increased as he widened his stance, ready for whatever threat the ōkami could dish out. 'I WON'T LET HIM GET KAGOME!'
As predicted, a whirlwind appeared over the tops of the trees, twisting and turning through the forest as it made its way toward InuYasha's group. Kagome's hand fisted in InuYasha's fur as she drew herself closer to the dog. 'Please,' she prayed to the Kami above, 'please let Kouga-kun just want some information, or else a lead on Naraku. Please.' The whirlwind was on the path now, then it abruptly abated, revealing Kouga in all his savage glory. The ōkami-prince cocked his head at the group, puzzled.
"Where the hell is inu-korro at? Don't tell me he's decided to abandon you and hunt Naraku on his own." Kouga's voice was incredulous as he looked at the group, although InuYasha could hear a faint trace of satisfaction in the ōkami's voice. Miroku and Sango looked at each other, deciding right then and there to lie to Kouga. It would be easy to say that InuYasha was only gone to look for something and that he would be back at any time. The ōkami knew from experience that InuYasha would attack him as soon as the hanyou caught sight of him, and, knowing that he would be overpowered, Kouga would leave and the group could breathe easy.
Unfortunately, before either Miroku or Sango could start talking, Shippou's bad habit of thinking with his mouth struck again. "InuYasha's been missing for several days, and we don't know where he is," the kitsune stated. Kouga stared at him, his blue eyes quickly going from disbelieving to victorious.
"Shippou!" Sango hissed at him. Shippou, realizing that he'd given too much away yet again, clamped his tiny hands over his mouth belatedly.
"The dog's away-" Kouga growled, his blue eyes flashing toward Kagome, a wicked glint sparking in his pupils. Then Kagome saw the shards in his legs shine with power as Kouga kicked off the ground, moving so fast that by the time Sango, Miroku and Kirara could blink, he had vaulted over Kirara, seized Kagome about the middle and started to run. "-so the wolf can play!" he finished. "Sorry for bothering you humans, but Kagome will be leaving you now!"
"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" InuYasha leaped over Kirara, his paws thudding against the sodden earth as he chased after Kouga, his ears flattened against his skull. Teeth bared, he jumped again, focusing all of his power into the leap. Amazingly, he managed to land right on Kouga's back.
"Mongrel!" Kouga lashed out with one fist and caught InuYasha a glancing blow on the jaw, sending him spinning into the surrounding foliage with a yelp of pain. Kouga smirked, then turned tail and ran as hard and as fast as he could, leaving the rest of the group in the dust. (Or rather, mud.) InuYasha ignored the pounding ache in his skull and charged after Kouga, sending mud and leaves everywhere as he pushed himself harder and faster. His sharp nose told him that Kouga had gone off the path and into the trees, choosing to lose the humans by taking a zigzag path through the forest. Knowing his human friends and their capabilities, Miroku and Sango would probably be going in circles for a good while...long enough for Kouga to get away with Kagome.
"Dammit, I will NOT let him take her away from me!" he bellowed, the ground flying beneath his paws as he pushed himself harder and harder, unwilling to let the ōkami win once and for all just because he was a dog. "Not this time, Kouga! This time, I rip out your damn throat! You'll learn once and for all that NO-ONE takes Kagome away from me!"
As InuYasha ran, something interesting began to happen to him. So great was his anger that he didn't notice that he was no longer running on four legs, but on two. He didn't feel his mane flapping in the turbulence from his great speed, or sense the return of his youkai powers. All he knew was the anger and intense loathing he felt toward Kouga, and the need to see if Kagome was safe.
"I will find you, Kagome," InuYasha growled, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you stay safe!"
Kouga finally arrived at his destination; a small cave set in a mountain that was quite a few miles away from the attack site. It was far enough from the path to insure that Kagome's human and youkai friends couldn't find her, which meant that Kagome was finally his. Kouga grinned at his unexpected luck. What fortune it was that he'd crossed paths with Kagome when InuYasha wasn't around! Now he could take what was rightfully his without that grabby puppy and his giant katana getting in the way.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" Kagome cried, pounding ineffectually at his shoulders as she squirmed and writhed in his grasp.
"Just here will do," Kouga replied, dumping Kagome on the floor and turning back. Cautiously, he looked out of the entrance of the cave, checking first left, then right. Satisfied that they were truly alone, Kouga turned around and walked over to Kagome, who had been trying to locate a rear exit while Kouga was looking out the front. "Finally, Kagome," the ōkami-prince purred as he placed his hands on either side of Kagome's head. "Finally, you and me get some alone time."
Kagome shuddered as the implication of Kouga's words sunk deep into her brain. "Please, Kouga," she said, trying to back away without any success. "I don't want this. If you really love me, you won't make me do anything I don't want to do."
Kouga just shrugged off Kagome's call for him to stop, stating, "I know you like that dog-breathed mongrel, but as soon as you've been with me, you'll forget all about him." He moved closer, his hands going from either side of her head to her chest.
"It doesn't WORK like that!" Kagome shrieked, her miko powers flaring and nearly searing Kouga's hands. "Get your hands off me right now, Kouga!"
"Not when I have this chance to make you mine, Kagome!" Kouga roared, then his hands were gripping the fabric of her shirt, ready to start tearing the material away.
"No, don't! Please!" Tears started in Kagome's eyes as the ōkami ignored her pleas and tore her shirt, roughly pushing the fabric away to expose her breasts, still hidden behind her frilly white bra.
"Stop struggling, Kagome," Kouga said, although he sounded more 'comforting' than angry. "You'll mess this up if you do, and I know you won't want that."
"No, no, no," she moaned, as the ōkami-prince brought up his hands, this time ready to start fondling her breasts. "Nooooooo," she whimpered as each hand seized a breast and squeezed.
"NO! STOP!" Kagome lifted her tear-stained face to the ceiling of the cave and screamed her last hope to whatever Kami was still listening to her. "INUYASHA! SAVE ME, PLEASE!"
InuYasha was sniffing around the base of a mountain, trying to determine where Kouga's scent had gone. He was just about to start his sixth lap around the mountain when he heard Kagome shrieking at Kouga, telling him to get his hands off of her. "No you don't, you fuckin' ōkami!" he roared, and leaped up the sides of the mountain. The hanyou jumped once, twice, three times before he saw the gaping mouth of the cave. Without further ado, he charged inside.
InuYasha's vision went blood red at the sight of Kouga standing with his body so close to Kagome's, his filthy hands fondling her breasts as he ignored the tears trailing down her face and her frequent pleas for him to leave her alone. "INUYASHA! SAVE ME, PLEASE!" Kagome screamed, right at the moment when InuYasha launched himself at Kouga, his clawed hands extending toward his throat. Kouga, sensing an overwhelming wave of youki, turned just in time to see the hanyou soaring toward him.
"Inu-"
Kouga was cut off as InuYasha slammed into him, sending the two of them crashing to the ground. Then the two youkai were locked together, grappling furiously as the ōkami and the inu-hanyou fought over the collapsed and weeping miko. Kouga had no idea where InuYasha had come from or how he had found them so quickly, but he did know one thing: he was no match for InuYasha in his enraged state. Quickly, Kouga whipped around and darted out of the cave, his tail flying behind him as he fled from the angry hanyou. InuYasha chose that moment to employ a move he had seen when Souta had forced him to watch 'television' with him; he leaped off the ground and tackled Kouga around the knees, bringing the ōkami down hard as he tore at his torso and arms. The struggling pair tumbled down the side of the mountain, sometimes smashing against the rocks as they continued to fight each other. InuYasha quickly overpowered Kouga: by the time they reached the bottom of the mountain, he had his arms firmly locked around his opponent. When he'd gotten a steady footing, InuYasha slammed the ōkami against a large rock, making Kouga's teeth rattle in his skull.
"If I ever catch you forcing yourself on Kagome again," InuYasha snarled, his face dominating Kouga's vision, his angry amber eyes staring down Kouga's nonplussed blue ones, "your body will be in so many pieces that the worms won't even have to swallow to eat you!" With that, InuYasha whirled about and threw the ōkami-youkai like an Olympic champion would throw the shot-put. Kouga landed a good three hundred feet away, the bones in his right arm snapping like twigs. Embarrassed, wounded and thoroughly beaten, the ōkami prince got up and limped away, his tail between his legs as he quickly vanished into the woods. "Yeah, that's right, fuckin' ōkami!" InuYasha called after him, pushing back his sweaty silver bangs with one hand.
Suddenly, the reality of the situation caught up with the hanyou, the realization hitting him like a thunderbolt. InuYasha slowly took his hand away from his forehead and looked at it, utterly stupified. He could feel his clothes sticking to his body and the weight of the Tetsusaiga at his hip. His mane of silver hair rustled in the breeze, and his clawed toes were gripping the ground as he swayed slightly. 'I'm...I'm...normal again,' he thought, dumbfounded. 'I'm not dreaming. I'm fuckin' normal again!'
Then InuYasha remembered the young miko he had abandoned in the cave while he had been intent on beating the shit out of Kouga. "Kagome!" he called, jumping up the side of the mountain again as he headed for the cave. "I'm coming, Kagome!"
