And we're back! Life has been crazy, I'm moving into three different places at once and working 8 hours a day, so at the very least please don't rip my throat out. August is going to be slow, until I go back to school, and then ironically I think I'll have more time to work on this.
Some good news though. The audio play has been casted for the first chapter! Everyone we need for the first step is here, so that should be coming out soon. We still need Miroku, Priest Takuya, Captain Yorino, and Lord Masao, though! So if you or anyone you know might be able to lend their voice to the project, send them my way!
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
A crack of thunder.
Inuyasha wrapped his arm around her waist, curling around her and holding her body flush against his. He whispered something in her ear, his voice swallowed by the eclipse drawing in all sound. Kagome felt her heart stutter in fear, her mind churning to understand what he said when all she could hear was the void, and all the while they were falling.
The world melted in hues of blood red around her, and suddenly she was standing on a beach. The orange cliffs rose up behind her. Kagome felt the warm water lapping at her bare feet as she starred out over the vast ocean. Foreboding black clouds boiled over the horizon, wisps slowly being drawn into the eclipse above. She could almost feel her soul lifting higher and higher into the slowly swirling void of the black moon, like it wanted to leave her body on the sandy shore. A humid breeze pushed strands of hair in her face.
Kagome woke up sputtering against a bucket of water poured over her head once again. Before she was even fully awake, she shot up on her futon and desperately wiped at her face, the stark cold quickly letting her mind catch up with her body. "Takuya, the sun hasn't even risen yet!" She moaned as she grabbed the towel she kept by her bed specifically for when this happened. Across the room, she could hear Inuyasha's poorly muffled snickering. With one glare from her, his smug grin disappeared. "You just let him walk right in, didn't you?"
"I didn't let him do shit." Inuyasha shrugged.
Kagome's glare narrowed. "But you didn't stop him either."
"No way."
"Enough of your adolescent bickering!" Takuya tossed the bucket to the side and forced Kagome to her feet, eagerly pushing her toward the door despite her whining protests. "Today we work on the Art of Healing!" He proclaimed.
Kagome turned her tired glare to him from over her shoulder. "More flowers?"
"It is a completely valid form of training, and I don't want to hear any more complaints! Outside, young lady." Takuya ordered, giving Kagome one last push out the door. "You too, Rin!" Turning to the girl's futon in the corner, he was met with only a tangled mess of hair peaking out from under her blanket. The Priest frowned, slowly inching his way toward her with his bucket, still half full of water. The moment he raised it over his head, a pillow came soaring through the air and knocked it back so it fell on him instead. Takuya yelped, pulling the bucket off his head to glare at both the hanyou who attacked him, and the Priestess who's eyes were brimming with tears from laughter.
Inuyasha glanced back at Takuya with an indifferent shrug. "Rin'll bite your head off if you wake her. I'll send her up to the Shrine when she gets up."
Kagome glared at Inuyasha accusingly, the threat ruined by her own laughter. "But you let him wake me up?"
"You're funnier."
With one last glare at Inuyasha, Takuya grumbled under his breath and began dragging Kagome toward the door.
Knowing from experience that resistance was futile, Kagome complied, but not before peaking her head back through the door to smile back at Inuyasha. "Good morning!" She chirped before, as expected, Takuya's hand reached in and pulled her back outside. Just barely able to hear Inuyasha's chuckle from the other side of the wall, Kagome smiled to herself as she accepted her fate. Handed a flowerpot and a bundle of incense, the Priest ushered her off toward the shrine steps. Kagome yawned as they started heading up the stone steps, rising above the sleeping village bellow. It was only about halfway up that Kagome realized that, while it was still dark out, there was a dim golden glow lighting her path. Faulting between two steps, she stopped and looked back to find Takuya following behind her with a familiar lantern in his hand.
"Takuya..." She began, "where did you get that?"
"This?" Takuya clarified, lifting the lantern just a little higher in his hands. "I bought it from one of the merchants in the market. I thought it would be just perfect for early excursions like this."
"May I?" With a nod from the Priest, Kagome took the lantern and turned it over in her hands, using its own glow to examine the fine details. The frame was a lot heavier than the ones she was familiar with, but she knew she had seen this same lantern in Kaede's chest. "Well. I'll have to thank Inuyasha for this early wake up call." She grumbled as she passed the lantern back to Takuya.
"Pardon?"
"Nevermind."
Kagome spent the better part of the early morning in the light of Inuyasha's lantern, sitting in front of the modest wooden shrine and surrounded by Takuya's plants. The incense she stuck into the ground rose in spiraling streams. Beside her, Kikyo's grave reflected the glow in dull, worn comparison to the newer grave next to it. Still, the Sister Graves stood on either side of her equally strong and sacred in their own ways. With every deep breath, Kagome took in the scent of her offerings, and with every release she heard the morning creatures buzz as dawn crept up behind the mountains. All the while, her hands hovered over a budding sprout in potted soil. Her mind, however, flashed images of Inuyasha's head in her lap in its place, his face slowly releasing all pain and tension under her fingertips. She always complained about Takuya's training, however unconventional it was, but if she could do that for Inuyasha, she'd never actually refuse it.
A light pair of footsteps and a tired yawn drew her attention to Rin coming up the stairs toward the Shrine, rubbing her hands in her eyes as she dragged toward the glowing lantern. Without a word, the girl stretched her arms over her head, picked up a broom from the side of the Shrine, and began to sweep. It was an old chore she had done under Kaede's care, something to help the elderly woman so she wouldn't strain herself. Kagome had told her many times that she could sweep the Shrine on her own, but Rin always took up the broom anyway. She quickly figured out that it was a comforting old habit for her, in the same way joining in her training was, and she wasn't going to disturb that.
The light brushing of straw against the ground soon blended in with the morning birds and bugs, allowing Kagome to seep back into concentration. It seemed she had barely closed her eyes again before Rin was suddenly standing between her and Kaede's grave to her right. "Kagome, where do you think Lady Kaede is?" She leaned against her broom.
Kagome tried not to look startled as she raised her head. This was the first time Rin had talked about Kaede since her passing. "I think... she's in a lot of places, Rin." She answered, thinking back to seeing her spirit at Goshinboku. "I think she's watching over us, and I think she lingers around the places that meant a lot to her in her life, and I think she is at peace where all humans go to rest. A spirit isn't a physical thing that exists in one place at one time."
"Is it the same way with Lady Kikyo?"
"I believe so."
"And what about Youkai?"
This time, Kagome couldn't silence her startled intake of breath. "Rin..."
The girl lowered herself to the ground and knelt beside Kagome, setting her broom down at her side. "One day I will grow old and die, and my Lord will not. I know that." She explained. "But I would like it if, even if not until the end of time, I could see him again."
The sky was still dark, but as Kagome looked at Rin, she had never seen her so clearly. She was no longer the child who trailed at Sesshomaru's heels, but a young lady who had seen so little of the world and yet knew so much. Kagome followed her gaze up to the Shrine. "Well... I believe there is a place where being human or youkai or even a deity doesn't matter. Somewhere beyond even the Underworld. I don't know what it's called, but I don't think that matters either. I just know that it's where you realize that your loved ones never left you, or you never left them. In someways, we're all already there."
"I like that idea." Rin decided. "I think it would be awfully lonely otherwise."
The two young ladies exchanged a warm glance. "Rin, sometimes I wonder if you're the wisest of all of us." Kagome smiled.
The sound of war drums echoing off the hillsides silenced them both. Dread sinking into her heart, Kagome rose to her feet, met with the unfortunately familiar sight of colourful flags and dust kicked up by sandals on the valley path. The idea of another day of enduring their company made Kagome's stomach churn, but there was nothing she could do. The villagers had welcomed them, and her role as Priestess was not to govern them or their thoughts. She had no choice but to put up with them. Beside her, Rin rose to her feet as well and looked down at the advancing army. "Sometimes I wonder if you're the most tolerant." Rin murmured.
Kagome tore her gaze away from the valley below. "I'm sure Inuyasha would have a few words to say about that." She smiled, drawing the girl's attention away from the grim sight. She tolerated Lord Masao's men because she had no other choice. Defying, she realized, would mean putting both the village and the Sacred Tree in danger.
A warm cup was pushed gently into her hands before she could let her mind wander. As she looked down at it, steam rose up over her face, and when the little cloud cleared, she found loose tea floating in boiled water. Behind her, Takuya gave a small cup to Rin as well, holding his own as he knelt by the graves. "That is enough for this morning, Ladies." He nodded as he lowered himself down. He gestured for the two of them to join him on the ground, waiting until they knelt on either side of him to reach forward and pluck a flower from the Jasmine plant in front of him. Dropping the flower into his own cup, he then did the same to Kagome's and Rin's, murmuring a prayer over them before lifting it to his mouth. With a long sip, he dropped his hands into his lap and sighed in content peace. "You're free to go."
Excited to hear that she was finished with her morning chores, Rin scrambled up to her feet and bowed to Takuya in thanks. The Priest smiled, reaching up to pat her head before she scrambled off down the stairs and into the village. They could just barely hear her yelp and complaint about the hot tea spilling on her hands from the bottom. Kagome laughed as she slowly rose to her feet as well. "I'll be off too, then." She said as she stretched one arm over her head and used the other to raise her tea to her lips. The taste was sweeter than she had expected, but it warmed her against the morning chill. For a moment, she closed her eyes and felt the hot liquid make its way down her throat and through her chest, and was able to forget the vulgar men flooding into her village below. That is until she heard a cart fall over and the contents spill into the streets. A chorus of laughter followed. Kagome walked beneath the Torii gate and watched as the group of men that knocked it over kept walking and the cart's owner laughed along with them before picking the mess up himself. She rolled her eyes, taking another sip of tea in the hopes that it would calm her boiling annoyance. She didn't know how long she could take this before she would snap.
'Well, nothing I haven't been dealing with for weeks.' Kagome thought to herself as she began her descent down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she rounded her Hut to the door and peaked inside to find Inuyasha long gone. With no one there, she didn't bother trying to conceal her disappointment. She had hoped they could spend the day together, since he was always acting so strange and secretive and she was always training. It seemed like forever since they had just spent a day together. 'Again, nothing I haven't been dealing with for weeks.'
There were no other chores or things to attend to that day, so rather than sitting around and dwelling on all the things that aggravated her, Kagome decided to take her wicker basket out to the glade by Goshinboku to forage for herbs. The morning was seeping into afternoon, and the sun was growing hot, so she didn't think twice before pushing her arms through the cuts in her kimono sleeves and tying them behind her back. She was sure Takuya would have a fit if he saw her, but she was beginning to think he had given up on changing the habit. Not that she really cared at that point anyway, it was hot. Ready to go out for the day, Kagome took one last look around her and headed toward the door; only to stop after two steps.
Poorly hidden under Inuyasha's futon in the corner, not that he ever actually slept on it, she could see a cloth wrapped package peaking out. Quickly looking out the door to make sure Inuyasha wasn't anywhere near, she nudged the futon up with her toe to find, as she half expected, lantern materials. The contents spilling out from beneath were much more elaborate that she'd seen before, with different metals for framing and coloured papers and paint. It looked like it had been thrown under the futon in a hurry, making her wonder if he hadn't quickly tried to hide it when Takuya came in to wake her that morning.
Even as she pushed through the bamboo mat door, Kagome frowned in thought, trying to figure out what Inuyasha could be up to. She knew he was selling the Lanterns, she saw that, and he kept making more, but Inuyasha wasn't exactly the business, domestic type. And why do it now? If this was a skill he had, why not use it during the three years she had been gone? It would make a lot more sense, but really, nothing he was doing made sense.
Those thoughts soon trailed off, put at the back of her mind for the time being as she made her way past a busy looking street. As she made her way, though, she couldn't help but overhear the conversation three Samurai and a few villagers were having.
"We received word about it just last night. Our men at an outpost not far from where have rid a neighboring village of its youkai problem. Some giant creature, didn't put up much of a fight." A Samurai boasted.
One of the young men cocked his head to the side. "Good to hear. Was it terrorizing them?"
"No, it was living with them, if you can believe that." Another warrior scoffed. "But it would have turned on them, they all do."
"Well then I supoose it's a good thing your men destroyed it in time." An older man nodded. "Anyway, you must all come to the festival, it's not long from now, and the village wants to thank you and the other men for..."
Kagome frowned as she let the rest of the conversation slip from her attention, her grip on her basket tightening. She couldn't take any more of this, not when they were going after youkai who had done no wrong. It hit far too close to home. Eyes flashing, she turned to stomp towards them, but couldn't make it more than a few steps before something blocked her path. Kagome stumbled to a stop before she could hit it, looking up to find Captain Yorino towering over her, eyes piercing straight through hers. Kagome's heart skipped, but she willed herself not to pale at the sight of him or the gruesome scar left on his limp hand. A long moment passed before she could will herself to breath, flinching as the Captain bowed to her. "Lady Kagome." He greeted coolly.
Kagome returned the bow. "Captain." She nodded as she straightened up again. "What brings you through the village? I haven't seen you here since you first arrived."
"Just taking in fresh air." The Captain answered, though Kagome could see he had no desire to converse with her. "It's also occurred to me that you might have something that belongs to me."
Kagome's mind wandered to the crystal he had dropped, now sitting in a box at the back of her cupboard. "I'm sorry, I don't think I do."
Yorino's eyes flashed dangerously, but he made no move against her. "That is unfortunate. Then again, I'm sure it isn't uncommon for things to go missing in a village like this, with that hanyou stalking the streets."
Her basket dropped to her side. That was it. Kagome thought she was at the end of her rope before, but she was about ready to explode in his face. She took one step forward, raising her finger to begin telling him off, when suddenly her wrist was grabbed and her finger diverted toward the trees. Eyes widening in confusion, she looked to her left to find the culprit. Takuya held her hand steady, inching his way between her and the Captain. "Well, would you look at that!" He exclaimed. "The leaves have turned over! Looks like we're in for some rain."
Kagome's eyes snapped toward the tree brances above her. Sure enough, every leaf on the branch was showing its underside, a change she hadn't even noticed. "What?"
"Overturned leaves are a sure sign of a coming storm. Captain, I hope you make it back to your fortress in time, because I have a feeling it will pour!" The Priest rambled, quickly letting go of Kagome's hand in favour of guiding her away from what could have been a devastating confrontation. "Good speed to you and your men! Don't slip in the mud on your way out!" As soon as they were far enough away, Takuya quickened their pace and muttered in her ear. "The Art of Healing is all fine and good, but next I think we should work on the Art of Holding One's tongue."
Kagome's lips sank into a firm pout at the comment, but she didn't dwell on it. Glancing up at the trees they passed, she saw every single leaf turned over, but not a cloud in the sky. 'A sure sign of a coming storm?'
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"You're sure?" Inuyasha grunted as he looked down over the hills to the east, the village behind him.
Myoga sat cross legged on his shoulder, the little flea just a speck again the red fabric. "I am afraid so, Master. I saw it with my own eyes." He informed him gravely.
Inuyasha clenched his fists. "Damn it." He growled. What was he supposed to tell Kagome? Could he even find the courage to say it? She had already gone through so much, he couldn't stand the thought of making her upset. Her cries from the day they found Kaede still haunted him in quiet moments, the memory constricting his chest until he could hardly breathe. "This isn't looking good, Myoga."
"What?" The flea leapt up to perch on the hanyou's nose. "I thought you of all people would put up bravado about swiftly bringing an end to it!"
Inuyasha growled under his breath in mounting irritation, reaching up to slap the little demon off his face. "I said it wasn't looking good, not that I couldn't handle it!" He argued as Myoga fell back into his palm. "I'll handle it." He repeated. "But I can't just charge at them, it's not just my life at risk here."
"Yet another thing I never thought I'd here from you."
"Watch it."
"It was meant to be a compliment!" Myoga backpedaled, looking up to the sky to find dark clouds boiling over the mountain peaks. "It just shows how you have matured. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm getting out of here before it rains. I will return to inform you of any developments I hear." And with that, the flea was gone, disappearing off Inuyasha's palm and into the grass below.
Inuyasha sighed and let his hand drop, eyes sweeping his surroundings from the village to the rolling hills, valleys, and rivers beyond. It wasn't two seconds before the skies opened up above him and the rain began to pour down. He cursed under his breath, taking off down the hillside and toward the village. Through the blinding veil, he could just barely see the sopping wet flags of Masao's men retreating back to their outpost.
By the time he made it back to Kagome's hut, he was hopelessly soaked to the bone. Inuyasha pushed through the door and began to ring his hair out onto the dirt floor, pausing only when he saw Kagome sitting on Kaede's chest with her arms crossed and his materials at her feet, equally soaked in only her white kimono. She raised a brow in challenge and lifted her chin to tell him she had no intention of moving. Inuyasha stepped up onto the wooden platform and made his way over to the empty firepit. "Kagome, what are you doing?" He asked as he began to shed his haori and kimono. Picking up logs and kindling from the stack in the dirt, he carried them back over to the pit and started on the fire.
Kagome remained unmoved by his indifference. "I want answers."
"To what?" He shrugged.
"You know what."
"How long has it been since I called you a Nosy Wench?" The Hanyou retorted, pausing to blow on the burning embers he made. "Because I think that needs to be said again."
Kagome's eyes narrowed. "Inuyasha!"
"Nosy Wench."
"I'm not moving until I get some answers."
"Hope you're comfortable."
Kagome let out a shout of frustration and leaned back against the wall behind her. Her hair dripped and stuck to her skin in glistening strands, doing nothing to help her irritation as she wiped it away."Why won't you just tell me? What's the big secret?! Ugh, you're so impossible!"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes, rising to his feet. Behind him, the fire slowly began to crawl up the logs and light the room. "Why do you need to know so badly?" He fired back.
"Because you're always sneaking around, acting all suspicious! It's irritating!"
"What's irritating is you butting in all the damn time. It's none of your business!"
"Obviously it is if you feel like you have to hide it from me!"
"Just drop it, Kagome!"
"I'm supposed to be part of your life!" Kagome shrieked, her shrill voice cutting straight through him. They both paused, the sound of heavy rain against the roof and slowly burning wood only strengthening the silence. Kagome glared at Inuyasha, eyes sad behind the fire reflected in them. "I just... we were apart for so long, and we never talk about it, not since the night I returned, and... I can't stand the thought of you keeping things from me, even if it's something stupid. I stayed to spend my life here with you, but I missed out on so much already."
Inuyasha's stubborn tension deflated just by the look on her face. "Kagome..." He trailed off. Heaving a sigh, he walked toward her and gently hooked on arm under her knees and the other around her back. He picked her up, balancing her against his bare chest as he carried her over to the fire and set her down. In the roaring firelight, her soaking white kimono was transparent, and neither seemed to care as Inuyasha walked back to the trunk, and she began to ring out her hair. Finally after some scuffling around in the trunk, Inuyasha lowered himself down beside her and dropped a thick coin pouch between them. Kagome's eyes widened and snapped up to the Hanyou, who immediately averted his gaze to poorly hide the tint to his cheeks. "You stayed to spend your life here with me..." He repeated her in a low murmur. "Your home was probably a lot more comfortable, and you must miss all of the things we don't have here. A Priestess is always taken care of by the village, so you never have to worry about things like food, but you don't exactly make any money. I-I know it's not much, but I thought that maybe... I could help, y'know, with everything else."
The heat flooding Kagome's chest seeped into her racing heart. She stared up at Inuyasha, but his gaze remained fixed on the flickering fire, stubbornly avoiding hers. He had always been a traveler, roaming from one mundane place to another, and now here he was trying to settle down and provide for her. "Inuyasha... you know I don't need this." She breathed.
"I know." He sighed, finally gathering the courage to look her in the eyes. "But I wanted to do it anyway."
Kagome didn't care about money. She didn't care if she was poor so long as she was with Inuyasha, she knew that when she took the plunge into the well and returned to him. So it wasn't the money but the deed itself, the thought and heart that went into it, that prompted her to wrap her arms around him and nuzzle her face into his neck. "Thank you, Inuyasha."
Slowly letting go of his tension, Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her closer, lowering them both back until he was leaning against the trunk, and she was laying against his chest. "Yeah... don't mention it."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
The earth was still covered in the last day's rain when Kagome walked into the Sacred Tree's glade that afternoon, but it didn't stop her from laying down in the grass and basking in the warm sunlight filtering through the overturned leaves above her. Even after the rain, while the other trees returned to normal, the Goshinboku's leaves remained turned, still waiting for the coming storm. Kagome frowned up at the branches in thought, the surreal quiet of the forest seeping into her veins and making her heavy, like she could sink right into the ground.
Reaching into the folds of her kimono, Kagome pulled out the crystal she had kept from Captain Yorino and held it up between her fingers in the sunlight. It seemed ordinary enough, just like a chunk of quartz, but she could feel the power surging beneath its rugged surface. "Godstone..." She murmured to herself as she turned it over to look at it from every angle. Fractured light shined in every direction each time the sun hit it just right, but it was quickly becoming apparent that just staring at it wasn't going to unlock its secrets. She sighed, letting her arm fall to her side.
A distant crash broke through her melancholy. Kagome rose to her feet, listening to the path she had taken from the village. After a beat of silent, the rapid increase of shouting reached her, echoing off the trees. She wouldn't have even bothered listening if she hadn't heard one distinct voice rise up over the other voices. Inuyasha's feral shouting was recognizable through an army's battle cry in a hurricane, something she had learned to instinctively pick out over her time with him. Letting herself believe that he was just picking a fight with one of the Samurai, she sighed and made her way down the path. She wasn't halfway down before the shouting match began to escalate, and she began to worry. The options of what could be wrong weren't looking good to her. Picking up her pace, Kagome ran out of the forest and down through the rice fields until she made it back to the village. Every man, woman, and child on the street were looking in one direction; the village market. She dodged through the crowd, finding it harder and harder to get through the throng of bystanders. When she finally pushed her way through, she stumbled to a stop and found Inuyasha about three seconds away from strangling one of the merchants.
"What the fuck do you mean you won't take them? We had a deal!" He bellowed. The Hanyou's lanterns were scattered on the ground at his feet, as if they'd been thrown back at him.
"I will not do business with a demon!" The merchant argued back. "Not after what you did!"
Inuyasha advanced a threatening step forward. "I told you, I didn't do it!"
"Hey!" Kagome shouted over them, possibly the only person there who could be heard over Inuyasha. "What's going on?!"
Inuyasha spun around, noticing Kagome for the first time. For a split second, his expression softened, but the moment he was reminded of why he was there, he turned his anger back to the merchant. The Merchant welcomed the arrival of the village Priestess, straightening up under the Hanyou's menacing glare. "Lady Kagome, this... this monster destroyed my goods!" He shouted accusingly, pointing toward the side of his cart where the cover had been sliced open by five distinct claw markings. "And I'm not the only one!" Surely enough, several carts and stands in the market had been tore apart or destroyed in some way, all with the same markings. The villagers chorused their agreement, hostility directed toward the crimson clad half demon in the centre of their mob.
"Wait, hang on a minute!" Kagome hollered above the noise. "You can't really believe it was him! Inuyasha would never do this!"
"You don't have to try to defend him anymore, Lady Kagome." One of the young ladies of the village stepped up, placing her hand gently on Kagome's arm. "We know, it's alright."
Kagome stumbled back from her touch, her shoulder brushing Inuyasha's side as she reached blindly for his hand. He took it without a faulter in his snarling at the mob. "No, you know Inuyasha! H-He saved you all, don't you remember?!"
"All demons turn, it is their nature." One voice tore through the crowd as it parted. Captain Yorino approached them, sick pleasure dripping from his gaze.
"You don't know anything about him." Kagome snapped. "I was with him all day! I was-"
"Kagome..." Inuyasha cut her off, his hand tightening in her grasp. She hadn't been with him at all that day, the villagers knew. They had seen. He had no alibi, no witness, and a sentence on his life since birth. The worst part was, by the look on the Captain's face, he knew that too. He knew he had won.