Inuyasha (manga and anime) are owned by Takahashi-san


The Journey Home – Chapter Eleven

It was currently nightfall. The humans of the group were fast asleep. Sesshoumaru and Jaken were still awake watching over the group. Jaken looked up towards him and he could see that Sesshoumaru had just closed his eyes. Not in sleep, Jaken figured, but in deep thought. Jaken decided to voice his own thoughts.

"I still don't know why you were willing to bring two more weak humans." Jaken whined. He was not happy.

"Are you questioning me, Jaken?" Sesshoumaru replied smoothly, opening his eyes to look down at the toad youkai.

Jaken visibly gulped, it was never good to argue with the tai-youkai, "N-n-no…of course not, Sesshoumaru-sama! I would never question you."

"Good. Now be silent." Sesshoumaru commanded.

Jaken shut his mouth. The next few hours of the night were uneventful.


š›

Kagome was wandering through the forest. She briefly wondered why she was walking through the forest when it was in the middle of the night. She could feel so silly sometimes, plus it was so cold, realising only then she didn't have a jacket on.

She walked deeper into the forest. Her feet seemed to be taking her somewhere. Suddenly her feet stopped, and she had noticed it now. In the middle of the clearing of the forest, there stood an old hut.

She heard many footsteps coming quickly from behind her, like running. She peered nervously behind her shoulder and found that they were a group of houshi, all of them wearing a determined expression. The leader of the group shouted towards the hut.

"Come out hanyou! We know you are in there. You have tried to steal the Shikon no Tama from a very powerful miko before. I don't know how you came to possess it, but we cannot allow that. We will pray for your cursed soul when we have released you from the evil that was born within you."

Kagome decided that she didn't like this houshi very much. She figured he must have something against hanyous in general. Kagome wanted to kick him in the shins, but found that her legs were stuck to the ground. She suddenly turned her head towards a sound that was coming from the hut.

A person slowly opened the door and he stepped out. Most of his face was covered in the shadows but Kagome had a pretty fair idea of who it was. The head monk spoke again.

"Surround him!"

Inuyasha didn't even flinch. Instead he spoke in a soft voice.

"Take it if you wish." And didn't say anything further, but that was the last straw for the houshi. He threw some ofuda towards the hanyou. It never reached him. Instead it was deflected by a barrier and the ofuda was lit up by flames. The monks gasped in surprise.

"How dare you! Hanyou and youkai are not supposed to have such pure power of the houshi and miko." He was sounding furious now.

"Then what is stopping you from taking it?" Then Inuyasha started chanting in that same strange voice that Kagome had heard before.

And suddenly he glowed.

Everything went white.

Kagome was struggling to keep her eyes open. Why did he have to be so bright? The light wasn't fading away.

"Will you turn off the light Inuyasha," Kagome said drowsily, "some of us are trying to sleep."

Inuyasha started to giggle.

I never knew Inuyasha could laugh like a girl.

He didn't stop laughing, in fact, it only got louder.


š›

"Kagome-sama is funny. You can't turn off the sun." It was Rin. And it was morning. Kagome groaned and sat up from her sleeping bag.

"You dream about my brother in your sleep?" The tai-youkai asked the young miko. Kagome smiled sadly and looked towards the horizon. Sesshoumaru decided to question her further.

"What do you dream about?" He wanted to know her answer.

"That…he's always alone…and there is always someone who is after him, youkai, houshi and miko. What does it mean?" She looked towards him, tears pooling down her cheeks, "I promised him that I would stay by his side…and I wasn't even there to help him. I don't even know if he's alright."

Sesshoumaru did not know how to answer the distraught girl. He never had to deal with emotional females, it was not his business.

After Inuyasha's supposed allies had abandoned him for reasons he was not sure of, it was rare that he would meet with his brother. He had thought that Inuyasha had died from grief. It seemed to be quite common in humans he thought. And he had not seen his brother for many seasons.

However when they did meet, after Inuyasha had defeated Naraku, Sesshoumaru had noticed a strange aura emanating from him. Sesshoumaru dared not to step any closer towards his brother, he had felt the energies trying to engulf him. It was energies that were similar to those who had spiritual powers. It was first time Sesshoumaru had encountered such a thing and it had intrigued him.

Over the next few meetings with his brother, he had noticed that Inuyasha was collecting the shards of the Shikon no Tama again. He had asked why he was doing such a foolish thing and he was uncharacteristically surprised with Inuyasha's response:

"Because it is my duty," the hanyou would say with an impassive voice.

Sesshoumaru did not know what was going to happen when the jewel was complete. That jewel was clearly a menace and there was no shortage of youkai or houshi and miko that were after his brother.

Sesshoumaru could still hear the soft whimpers from the girl and he turned his head towards her. He saw that the older miko was trying to comfort the girl. His eyes narrowed in scrutiny over the young girl's figure and noticed that Kagome appeared to have lost some weight over the years.

It was the same with Inuyasha as well. He would never see him hunting for food or hardly at all. He frowned, although it was not visible to the others. Apparently their separation had affected them in a bad way. He hoped he would not be too late before they would meet again.


š›

Kagome was continuing to follow in Sesshoumaru's direction, although she wished he would walk faster. She thought he was doing this on purpose, but she knew her arguments would fall on deaf ears. She continued to walk, while half admiring the scenery and half listening to Rin's cheerful conversations.

She felt a sudden cold breeze and she was sure it wasn't the wind. She looked to her right and saw strange lights hovering in the distance. Kagome felt herself being pulled towards the light and so she went ahead towards them.

Kaede looked on also seeing the strange lights and became worried. She felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Kaede-sama, where is Kagome-sama going?" Rin asked, while looking in Kagome's direction.

"She's just gone to see someone." Kaede replied.


š›

Kagome reached the clearing where Kikyou was standing.

It was Kikyou who broke the silence.

"Did you run here hoping to find Inuyasha with me?" She smiled as if she was mocking her.

Kagome felt a jealous spark. This was not the time to be feeling jealous, Inuyasha wasn't even here. Kagome answered hesitantly. "Do-do you know where he is?"

Kikyou's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps he is in hell." It was a cruel joke, but then she added, "And yet he is always following you."

"What-what are you trying to say? He-he's always worried about you." Kagome tried to say, but Kikyou looked at her with sad eyes.

"Really?" Kikyou eyed Kagome carefully which made the girl feel very uneasy. "Inuyasha worries about everyone. But he cares for only one. It is funny how everyone misinterprets it, even you sometimes." Kikyou turned and looked up towards the sky, her tone was soft yet it held sadness, "I always wondered what his face would look like when he found out that I was dead, before I was brought to this body. Would he be sad, angry even? I would probably never know. But…" she paused looking back at Kagome, "when you couldn't come back from the well for a very long time…never in my life have I seen someone so broken. Even I, was unable to reach him."

Kikyou put a hand over her heart but she felt no beat to indicate that she was alive. How she had missed that feeling. "Don't push him away because of me. I think it would be good if he saw you again." And with that she disappeared.

Kagome watched as the miko walked away with her soul skimmers trailing behind her.

It was true Kagome felt with a heavy heart. When things concerned Kikyou, she would always try to push Inuyasha away, and then she would always run home. Afterwards she would feel so guilty, in that every time she got back, she would always make amends with the hanyou. Although she thought the others would probably make it worse with their comments which resulted in him being more depressed or angry, she felt her relationship with the hanyou would always stop whenever Kikyou was mentioned.

Back then she was afraid of the growing feelings she was having for the hanyou, it was a feeling she never felt before. And she didn't know whether to ignore them or not. A few times Inuyasha would want to say something to her, but those moments were always ruined and the whole matter would be completely forgotten.

She wanted a perfect boy back then, before her fifteenth birthday. Only that she never knew the meaning of what a perfect boy was. Every time she met one, she got no reaction, no boy that could fit her meaning of 'perfect'.

Hojo had no reaction.

Miroku had a little reaction. But it was nothing, after he felt her behind.

Sesshoumaru just scared the hell out of her.

She sure it wasn't Kouga; she guessed she would always hear how great he was, on and on.

Then there was Inuyasha. They would argue a lot, almost about everything. He would look at her with his amber gaze and her heart would always skip a few beats. He would hold her on his back as he ran through the forests, and she would be secretly enjoying it.

And there were other times, so rare that she would never forget them.

Kagome remembered one of these moments, particularly because it was the first.

They had yet another argument where it again involved Kikyou.

Kagome lay in bed unable to sleep earlier but was slowly drifting towards slumber, when she heard the window softly slide open and she heard someone climbing through the window. She was too sleepy to notice if that person was dangerous or not. Her eyes were still trying to close; when she noticed a pair of golden eyes staring back at her. Kagome gasped at the unfamiliar sight and suddenly opened her eyes, to find nothing.

But she did notice some red fabric quickly disappearing through the window. The girl scrambled out of her bed and ran to the window to look outside, in vain.

"Inuyasha, I know you're out there," she called out to the night. "You can stay here for the night."

Nothing.

"Please, I won't bite I promise. I don't even know what we argued about anymore."

Still nothing.

"I don't have fleas if that's what you're worried about," and then she added quietly. "Please come back."

Kagome closed the window after a while and climbed back into bed. She felt tears forming in her eyes and she quickly wiped them away.

And she slowly fell asleep again.

During the night, Inuyasha did come back in, quite hesitantly fearing that the girl would unexpectedly wake-up again.

And Kagome woke up the next morning to find the hanyou sleeping next to her,on top of her bed covers with a hand over hers. Kagome smiled.

"Kagome, is everything alright?" Kaede asked making Kagome jump out of her reverie.

Kagome looked around her but sensed that Kikyou was no longer in the area.

"I'm alright Kaede baa-chan."


Until next time...