Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or The Decemberists.
A/N: …I'm so, so, so sorry. There isn't much I can say except that. I've been going through a lot of crap lately. There's been family problems and whatnot. Then just last week I was in the hospital. I collapsed in 3rd period. I was asleep for a day. I had an IV tube and everything. It was actually pretty cool. :D But besides that, I don't much have an excuse. I'm so sorry.
IMPORTANT: I'm going to try and update again tomorrow because I was so late with this one. Damn illness.
The Barrow Boy
Chapter 7-A Lovely Way to Die
Bi Polar
Inuyasha had refused to tell her what she needed to do to help him there in the clearing that night so she reluctantly had to wait.
She had promised to meet him in two days. She needed a break from the river and it was going to take a little time for the entire truth sink in. At first he wouldn't have it; he told her that they needed to get going on "the mission" as soon as possible. Kagome told him that if he wasn't going to tell her what this so called "mission" was than he'd just have to wait.
That was that and here she was two days later sitting in the clearing, waiting for her new found ghost friend to show up. It was getting later and later and she began to wonder if she had made him angry when she told him to piss off and wait for her to come back…he probably, knowing him.
"Waiting for me?" She turned around to see the transparent boy leaning against a tree smirking at her. Inuyasha grew less and less lucid and took on his white glow look.
"So, finally going to explain this whole tribute thing to me?"
"Yeah, I guess." He let out a huge sigh. "If I have to."
"Okay." She smiled widely and turned to stare at him while he explained.
"Alright." He gave another dejected sigh. "I became a barrow boy when I was," He paused trying to jog his memory, "16, collected things and traded with people here and there. I just decided to stay here when I passed through because I loved it so much. But the thing I loved most was this girl…that lived in town." He blushed, but you had to look really hard to see it. "Her name was Kikyou." Kagome giggled and he swung around to glare at her.
"I'm sorry, it's just cute!" Kagome bit her lip then made her most serious face. "Okay, go on."
"Anyways, she lived in that big house a top the hill. It's abandoned now." Kagome nodded. "So we started to get to know each other. Kikyou always used to tell me she was really bored with her lavished life and liked it better with me…at least that's what she said." He frowned.
"Her father wasn't going to let a nobody like me marry her…the wealth and social position of the family wouldn't look well if everyone in London knew she had married a barrow boy. So they set up an arranged marriage with this prosperous business man named Naraku. He was a complete arsehole." He shook his head, reminiscing.
"Well with this whole marriage thing at hand, I saw less and less of Kikyou and when I did see her she was always with him…the worst part was that she looked happy. I hated that." He shook his head.
"Did…did she love him?" Kagome spoke up.
"To this day I'm not even sure. I think she was beginning to…but that shite head cared more about his money that anything else and he was tired of sharing it." He sighed loudly. "So he killed her."
"What?" Kagome asked in disbelief, unsure if she heard right.
"He killed her. That bastard didn't even get caught. No one suspected such a socialite. It was the tragedy of the year. Partially because she was never found but even more so because no one knew who did it. I did though. I knew. And I was going to make sure the world knew. And despite his growing confidence he was scared that he was going to be found out. So he murdered me too." He sighed and ran an eerie white hand through his silver locks.
"Murder…but the song…"
"I know; it makes it out to be suicide, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Well that's a load of bullocks. It was put down everywhere that it was a suicide, but it wasn't. Good ol' Naraku strangled me, threw me in a river, "found" me the next day, and told everyone all mournful like that I had killed myself out of remorse for Kikyou's death. It was a lovely way to die." He turned to look at her with tired eyes. "I can't tell you that suicide wasn't on my mind, because it was after Kikyou died but I was never going to actually do it…she was much better off and as far as I know she had no trouble getting past Limbo Tavern."
Inuyasha lied down on the rock with his arms behind his head, staring at the night sky. Kagome felt like giving him a hug but she knew she'd look foolish again trying to embrace a ghost.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was soft and full of pity.
"Ah, nothing we can do about it now except get me out of Limbo, right?" He answered a little more light hearted than she expected. But I suppose after 50 years of thinking it over, there was only so much you could do.
"So how can I help?" Kagome asked eagerly, she didn't know why she wanted to help him so much considering how rude he was and the fact that she didn't know him personally yet…she just did.
He sighed. "There are two things that keep ghosts from passing on. Either they don't understand that they're dead or they hadn't completed something that they feel they need to do before they move on." He sat up to look Kagome in the eye. "For me it's the later one."
"So what do you need to do?"
"Kikyou's body was never found." He whispered.
"So…you want us to go find it?" She asked quietly.
"…Sort of…" He responded gently biting his lip in concentration.
"Well what else is it?"
"She had this necklace that I gave her and…"
"You want it back!" Kagome nearly shouted. "You want to rob the dead woman you loved?"
Inuyasha's face flared and he glared at her. "I never said that!"
"Well then that's what you must have meant."
"No! That's not what I meant! I meant…the necklace…it just means a lot to me." He whispered quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"It was my mother's." When he looked back up at her his eyes were so hallow her heart must have skipped 25 beats at least.
"Oh…" That was the only intelligible thing that came out of her mouth. He stared at her expectantly while she regained her bearings. "Let's find her." She finally replied tenderly.
Inuyasha's face lit up; if that was even possible. "Oh thank you, thank you." He kept bowing and she felt increasingly awkward.
"So when should we start?" She asked, hoping it would make him stop bowing. It did, thank God.
"Right now."
"Right now? But it's getting late and I'm tired!" Kagome whined but Inuyasha wasn't going to take any of that.
"You promised and you can't go back on a promise." He stated matter of factly, shaking his pointer finger in front of her face.
Kagome sighed angrily. "Look, I'm really not in the mood for this right now. It's been a long day and I'm still trying to get used to the fact that a ghost has just asked me to help him out. I'm going to bed and you're going to have to deal with it."
"What?" Inuyasha jumped up off the stone. "No fair, you just promised!" He cried.
"Ah, but you didn't say when this 'promise' went into affect." She said smiling, showing off her wit.
"Then I'm making it now. It starts this minute!" He said with a frustrated look on his face.
"Nope, too late, slowcoach." She laughed and began walking off towards the village.
"Oh you're a witch; you know that." Inuyasha shouted to her as she walked away.
"See you tomorrow Inuyasha." She waved to him without looking back at his distraught, disbelieving face.
A/N: Thank you to all of you who updates. You're all so lovely. It's such a nice ego boost when I have such good people who review. :D
Photographing Poetry: Thank you for the review and I'm sorry I updated so late. I came down with a pretty bad dose. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to you and your sister? You don't have to say, I won't be offended.
Kasandra16: You're so sweet. I love reading your reviews. They really cheer me up when I'm down. :D
Whitewolf33: You're so nice. Thank you so much for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter.
KasperLassie: Haha, you're so charming. Thank you for the comment.
Inashosetai: You're such a good friend. Thank you for all the advice and I think I'm going to hold off until a little longer to update my other story. Then I won't stress out. Haha, I had one of those interruptions on updating. Going to the hospital certainly was a trip. But thanks for all the advice and support you're your wonderful friendship. You're something, you know that?
Sleep-deprived101: Thank you for the advice, you're a wonderful person. :D
Xianora: A medium is basically someone who can make contact with ghosts. They can communicate and what not. They're supposed to have really high energy levels or something. Anyways, thanks for the review.
Heaven and Earth: Where did you go? When you out of town I mean. Thank for the lovely comment.
Please Review! I promise to write you a lovely little note back. :D
