Back again with a new chapter. To address a concern:
I forget who, but someone said my timeline was off. Kagome is 21 and graduated university early. The anime took place when she was 15 or so. 6 years have passed. Her mother and brother died 3 years in, so when she was 18. I looked back and I think I have it somewhere saying 17 so I will have to go back and fix that. Sorry for any confusion! You all like to keep me on my toes and I appreciate it.
"I loved her.
Not for the way
she danced with my angels,
but for the way
her name could
silence my demons." -Christopher Poindexter
Chapter 11
The wind raked its invisible fingers through Kagome's tendrils that hung from her loose up-do. The air that rushed into her lungs was revitalizing, fresh, and woke her spirit. Kagome felt so awake, alive, and free for the first time in a long while. If she closed her eyes she could see clear as day Miroku, Sango, and Kirara there with her riding atop Shippo. Oh how nice it was to fly again! Kagome sighed contentedly and thrust her arms out to either side of her and threw her head back. Inuyasha sat in the background, arms and legs crossed, watching her in contemplative silence.
"You know Inuyasha, you could take some notes from Kagome and lighten up a bit." Shippo mused from below in his large pink balloon-like form. The now grown fox demon didn't struggle to carry the combined weight of several people and could even withstand distractions…
"Ouch!" Shippo yelped after Inuyasha struck his bulbous body with a sheathed Tessaiga. Inuyasha calmly returned the fang back to his hip without taking his eyes off of the jubilant woman before him.
The three traveled in silence until Shippo tried his luck again at asking Kagome about the details of her 150-year disappearance. Kagome described the well calling her and suddenly coming back to life after a long 6-year dormancy. She told Shippo about getting kidnapped, but left out the details of her imprisoned stay at Inuyasha's palace. Shippo was drawn in by the exciting tale but not so oblivious to the glaring fact that Kagome was incredibly thin and she hadn't exchanged a single word with the demon lord. It was odd and certainly not how two reunited friends should be acting. Nevertheless, Shippo kept his observations to himself – for now.
Kagome, on the other hand, had nearly forgotten that Inuyasha was seated just five feet behind her. Kagome and Shippo excitedly chatted while the half demon sat in the background motionless and aloof. She would have suspected he was deep in thought if it weren't for his incriminating ears twitching as the two talked. Kagome inwardly smiled at the idea of Inuyasha eavesdropping on a casual conversation between old friends. It seemed… very un-regal and much more like his moody, stubborn self from before. Its almost as if the restraints of nobility withered away the further the pair traveled away from the palace. But when they were at the palce Inuyasha acted incredibly detached and almost like… Sesshomaru? Kagome wondered if Sesshomaru acted this way because he was born into royalty and raised into the role of Lord of the West. Both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, matter of fact, were born into royalty yet they acted completely different in the past. Their father was one of the greatest demons of his time and Inuyasha's mother was even a princess. The only difference between the two was the fact that Sesshomaru had grown up with his father's influence and Inuyasha did not. Not for the first time, Kagome found herself wondering what Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father had been like. His two sons were utterly polarized before, but now she could see some blossoming similarities between the two. Both were stone-cold rulers that commanded respect with their threatening demeanors alone. Kagome peeked back at Inuyasha. Yes, his appearance was still intimidating but he looked more solemn now than menacing. Still, he sat by himself watching the landscape before them pass as the trio cut through the sky.
"We're close." He said suddenly, startling Kagome.
"What exactly are we close to?" she inquired seeing only trees and dense forest below. Only a few moments later a town materialized on the western horizon. Kagome squinted at it to get a better look and sharply inhaled. The town was fairly large in size with high walls and hauntingly familiar.
Kagome turned to him, her eyes wide with panic. He was already looking at her, piercing her with those intense, amber eyes willing her to calm down and submit. No chance of that. "Inuyasha, where are we going? I can't go back to Kaede's village. They'll kill me if they see me."
"If anyone is going to kill you, it'll be me." Inuyasha said callously without skipping a beat. His voice was once again thick, black smoke that caused every hair on Kagome's body to stand on end. Shippo began to protest but the hanyou quickly finished, "… But I'm not going to do that."
"You don't still think I'm not Kagome, do you?" Kagome cried, angry that he still had the idea of killing her at the forefront of his mind. No response. She stood up and stamped her foot on their pink aircraft in frustration. "What do I have to do to prove to you that I am the real Kagome? You've kept me locked up for how long now and I haven't made any moves to kill you? You're lucky that I can't still 'Sit' you!" Kagome shouted at him. At the mention of being locked up Shippo took the chance to speak up as well.
Inuyasha's brow furrowed and he flashed the two a nasty scowl before standing up and striding over to Kagome. Her fiery agitation quickly sizzled into thin smoke as he towered over her. He unexpectedly reached out and pulled her against his side before wrapping an arm around her waist and launching the both of them off of Shippo. The momentum carried them through the air before they started their barreling, downward descent to the ground. Being held with one arm against his side rather than secured on his back like the old days caused her to clutch to him tightly and screw her eyes shut. She'd be screaming if all the air hadn't been pressed out of her lungs due to the high velocity they were falling at. She opened her eyes just in time to see him gracefully land on a tree and with sheer, unbridled power he pressed off again high into the air and again they were soaring. Kagome's poor stomach didn't have the chance to recoil and for the first time she was happy that she didn't have a lot of food in her belly. She was light-headed and breathless – she didn't ever remember moving this fast with Inuyasha before. Was it six years of moving at a humanly pace that caused her to feel so unprepared or had something else changed?
"INUYASHAAA!" she screeched as soon as she felt oxygen enter her lungs.
In the blink of an eye the two were stationary and perched on top of a tree. Kagome's blood returned to all parts of her body and she slumped against him. She groaned miserably. It felt like all of her limbs had changed in composition and magically turned into lead weights. Kagome recalled one of her physics professors from University explaining what gravitational force was and how it affected the human body. The human body can only withstand so many G-forces of speed with sudden stops before it just gives out completely. Her legs shook uncontrollably as she tried to stand so she didn't even bother. She half expected him to say something along the lines of "Keh, humans are so weak." But instead he just quietly held on to her and waited for her to acclimate.
"I don't ever remember feeling like this in the past when I was on your back." Kagome panted. Her arms began to loosen from around his torso but every muscle was still clenched so tight that they simply fell uselessly next to her sides like clubs.
"I was weaker then." He said simply, "My demon blood is much closer to the surface than it ever was before. I'm more in touch with it and it's lent me immense strength."
Kagome gaped at him. This was due to his curse?
"Is that why you have those jagged lines on your wrists?" Kagome asked. Now it was Inuyasha's turn to be caught off guard. He wasn't aware that she had ever seen those – he'd tried to keep them hidden.
"Yes. They're apart of my demon half. One day they appeared on my skin after I'd shifted and they've been there ever since - a constant reminder that I'm losing the war on this curse and Ubanaki." He explained.
Kagome pursed her lips. The markings reminded her of Sesshomaru's and were identical to the jagged lines that cut across Inuyasha's face every time he turned into a demon in the past. It made sense, she supposed, that as more time passed that he spent cursed the more havoc the curse would wreak on his body. It also made sense that he would begin taking on the appearance of a demon, as well. She glanced up at him one last time while he spoke and caught a glimpse of a pearly, glistening fang. Had his razor-sharp fangs always been that long?
The strength began to return to Kagome's body and she took a look at their surroundings. They were heading west and in-line with Kaede's village. Ahead, was the tree of ages, which was easily identifiable amid the crowd of smaller trees. Were they going to the well? Was she going home? Was that even possible?
Inuyasha tightened his grip on her waist and she prepared herself to the best of her ability for take off. They soared through the sky at a noticeably slower pace this time and Kagome silently thanked him. It turned out that he had plans other than dropping her off at the well as they blew right past the tree of ages. They traveled for only a few more minutes before Inuyasha took her below the tree line and her feet landed on the ground. She looked around and shot him a puzzled look. They were in the middle of the forest and as far as Kagome could tell there was nothing worth noticing near by. The underbrush was overgrown and the large trees were draped with moss and tangled branches. Bright sunlight only penetrated the forest floor in patches and made the shady timberland seem that much thicker.
"You're going to want to follow that path." Was all he said pointing a claw at the ground where the brush parted creating a narrow, grassy path uphill. While it may have been traveled plenty in the past it was obvious by the overgrown and undisturbed grass that nobody had traipsed up this hillside trail in quite some time. She looked over at Inuyasha but he made no move to lead so Kagome began to walk.
The trail was pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Only a few times she had to climb over a fallen tree or cross a bubbling stream. Inuyasha hadn't followed her up the path. She figured that he was confident that she'd be safe here and that she also wouldn't be able to run away from him. She wondered if he was lurking in the shadows watching her from afar… or maybe he was beginning to trust her? Or he knows that he could easily sniff me out and catch up to me before I even ran a mile away, stupid. She internally berated herself. Wasn't it just an hour ago that he had implied he still might not trust her? She huffed and wiped the budding sweat beads from her hairline.
Kagome pushed her way through some branches that covered the exit and exhaled a sigh of relief. The forest line ended here and all she had to do was trek up the rest of the hill. To her delight Kagome could see where the hill rounded off at the top, which would only take her a few minutes to reach. She gingerly stepped away from the tree line and into waist-high grasses that cloaked the hillside. She waded through the sea of dancing green grasses that moved collectively in waves with the breeze. As she neared the top she spied a grand, old oak tree with twisted branches that reached out in all directions. At the top the grass was once again short and Kagome began to easily make her way to the tree. Besides the imposing, old tree, grass, and an array of white wild flowers, the top of the hill was completely bare. Is this where Inuyasha meant for her to go - to a tree?
Kagome reached the tree and ran her fingers over the rugged bark that shrouded it. Suddenly, something like an electrical current flowed within her and she was very in-tune to the fact that there was something different about this tree. Something about this tree had caused her spiritual senses to heighten and all at once she was hyper-aware of every thing around her. She could feel the birds nesting in the tree, the current of a near by stream, and sense that Inuyasha was near by. This was streamlined with her awakening priestess power, but not quite like it. She could comfortably admit that this was an immense power unlike anything she had ever felt before – and yet it was wholly pure.
Kagome walked around the wide base of the tree and found the source of the power. The air deflated from her lungs and her shoulders sagged. Kagome let her chin tilt back and she absently gazed at the branches overhead. This is what Inuyasha had brought her to see. Protruding from the tree at an angle was a golden and ringed staff. Below it was a large, decorated boomerang made from demon bones. Kagome let her head fall forward and immediately spotted two grave-marking stones on the ground: Miroku, Sango.
Kagome sat for a long time at the foot of her friends' graves. Before that she had reached out and touched Miroku's staff causing a pulse of energy that rocked her lithe body to its core. Kagome longingly looked at Sango's Hiraikostu but did not touch it – Sango's weapon only served Sango. It would only reject Kagome's touch. She also collected some of the white wild flowers that bobbed and danced in the wind and Kagome placed them on each grave. She said a few wordless prayers for the two while a few silent tears slid down her cheeks. This was the closure she had needed with her dear friends.
"I'm sorry I came back too late." Kagome whispered as she clasped her hands tighter in prayer.
"They always wished the best for you even though you weren't here." A voice from behind her spoke up. Startled, Kagome quickly turned around to face Inuyasha and Shippo standing some odd fifteen feet away.
"Miroku and Sango, I mean." Shippo continued.
"And they talked about you all of the time. They told all of their children about you." Shippo added earnestly. "Miroku and Sango never lost hope that you'd come back to see them and I'm glad they weren't wrong." Shippo finished with a smile.
Fresh tears flowed freely down Kagome's face as she got up and launched herself at the fox demon. "Oh Shippo!" she cried before running into his open arms and sobbing against his chest. In that moment the roles reversed and he held her like she had held him in the past during trying times. Soon her sobs became sniffles and Shippo let go of her. He wiped away her tears with his thumbs and told her he'd be waiting to take them home whenever they were ready. Shippo started back down the hill and soon it was just Inuyasha, Kagome, and the graves. Kagome turned to Inuyasha and searched his eyes for anything that may offer her comfort.
Inuyasha sighed, "Come here." He said quietly.
Kagome fell into his arms and leaned her forehead against the cool, hard metal of his chest plate. The difference between Shippo's soft and warm embrace and Inuyasha's hard and metallic one was glaring. Kagome found herself longing for the days when things were simpler and wanted nothing more than to tear the armored shell away from him – literally and figuratively. Inuyasha uncomfortably hovered his hands over her body before settling for wrapping an arm around her and placing another clawed hand on top of her head.
He supposed he owed her at least this small ounce of consolation. Shippo had berated him on the hike up to this spot. In her rage-induced rant Kagome had carelessly mentioned that Inuyasha kept her locked up.
"Inuyasha why would you treat her like a prisoner? I can't believe you. You know she's the real thing." Shippo spoke at him disdainfully.
"I don't." was all Inuyasha growled back at him.
"Inuyasha, both you and I know that you're just being stubborn." Shippo crossed his arms and threw his nose in the air. Inuyasha should really consider putting him in his place. "You need to know when to trust the right people or you're going to be the one hurting in the end. I knew she was too thin and she's really acted like she's wanted nothing to do with you. I knew something was up and I suspected that it started with you." Shippo shrugged nonchalantly.
"After this you better start treating her well because you have no excuses to hide behind if she can see the graves. If you can't treat her like our friend I have no problem taking her. She deserves to be treated better than what you have." He warned taking on a much more serious tone. Inuyasha snarled at him and stomped ahead on the grassy trail.
He was infuriated that the impertinent fox demon thought he could speak so brazenly to him, but mostly he was angry with himself. Deep down he knew Shippo was right and that Kagome had been miserable.
She clung on to his body like he was a life raft in stormy seas. Inuyasha pulled the clip from her hair and let it fall so it cascaded down her back. He cupped the back of her head with his hand and stroked the soft, jet-black hair there with his thumb. Inuyasha didn't know why, but he had the irrefutable urge to rest his chin on the top of her head; so he did. Was this comforting for her? It'd been a very, very long time since he had attempted to comfort a human woman. It'd also been a long time since a human woman had tried to comfort him, but he distinctly remembered this method of comfort used on him as a child by his mother.
"They loved you." He found himself admitting. He cursed himself for saying that as he smelled new salty tears in the air, but a part of him knew it was the right to let her know. It was true – Miroku and Sango had spent a lot of time thinking of Kagome. Even insisting that they stay in Kaede's village in case she came back, long after Inuyasha had departed the area to rule his kingdom. They raised a family in that village and told them all the stories of a powerful and brave priestess that helped complete the Shikon jewel and destroy their formidable foe, Naraku. Up until the day they died and their weakened human bodies gave out they never once doubted they'd see Kagome someday. Inuyasha had the two buried, side-by-side on this hill that overlooked the tree of ages and Kaede's village. The spot was secluded, private, and most of all a special place to Miroku and Sango.
A few days before his passing, Miroku had requested Inuyasha to take him to the top of the hill, as he was too old to make the trek alone. Once there, Miroku had pierced his staff through the tree's bark and lodged it there with a strength that surprised even Inuyasha. He had chanted a prayer and then turned toward Inuyasha with a simple smile, "Time to go home. Sango will be worried if we spend too much more time up here."
"That's it? You're leaving your staff up here?" Inuyasha asked incredulously.
"Can you not feel it, my friend? There's a barrier on this hill now." Miroku explained. In fact, Inuyasha hadn't felt it but he certainly didn't doubt it. Miroku had become an extremely influential and powerful monk. "Maybe not," Miroku continued, "But only certain people will be able to see my grave and my staff here."
"Don't talk like that, Miroku." The half-demon warned.
"I am an old man, and I've lived a long happy life. This body will not go on forever – I am only human after all." Miroku echoed Inuyasha's words from yesteryears. On that hilltop Miroku gave concise instructions for he and his wife's burial and that's when he learned that only he, their children and bloodline, and their friends would be able to see the grave – including Kagome. Inuyasha wanted to explain that Kagome would likely be dead at this point but Miroku wouldn't hear it. Anyone else that found their way to the top of the hill would find nothing but grass and bare landscape at the top. It was only a few days later that Miroku passed, and Sango soon followed after him.
Inuyasha watched the graves from where he stood, his chin still buried in her locks. Well old man, your barrier had its uses after all. Ya hear me? She came back to see you both just like you planned. Inuyasha could have sworn in that moment he felt a firm hand clap down on his shoulder and pat it a few times before dissipating into thin air. Kagome suddenly pulled away from his chest, bleary eyed and tear stained she began searching over Inuyasha's shoulder for something that wasn't there. That old monk worked in mysterious ways.
"We should get going." She stated after pulling away from his embrace. Kagome asked herself when this dream would end because she couldn't believe that Inuyasha would ever hold her so tenderly. It was mid-afternoon and she calculated that they'd be lucky to get back to the palace before midnight. Kagome turned to say her last goodbyes to her friends and then the two wordlessly walked down the hill to find Shippo.
The trip back to Shippo's hut was fairly quiet until they were but a few minutes away.
"Inuyasha." Shippo said cautiously.
"Yeah, I know. I smell them." Inuyasha rumbled.
Kagome looked at Inuyasha who was sat much stiffer and ridged than before. She looked down at the forest below and couldn't see anything that stuck out to her.
"Take Kagome. I need to go check on the boy." Shippo called before transforming right from below Kagome's feet. Inuyasha quickly grabbed her and pressed her body against his side once more as Shippo flew off now in the shape of a large bird. The two landed on treetops and Inuyasha began gracefully jumping from treetop to treetop until they landed in the clearing next to Shippo's hut. Shippo was already there tending to his injured apprentice surrounded by a group of humans. The humans came in the form of angry men with guns, swords and torches. Inuyasha shielded Kagome from view with his body and confidently squared his shoulders causing his striking jagged shoulder armor to gleam in the late afternoon sunlight.
"I'm sorry, Master! It was an ambush and I couldn't hold them off!" the wombat demon cried as Shippo hushed him and turned to face their opponents.
"This is demon territory. I suggest you humans turn and leave before I send you back myself." Inuyasha menacingly growled looking between the twenty or so humans that stood before him.
One man stepped forward with a cocky grin, "And why should we? Just because you got some fancy armor and you're a demon? Who do you think you are anyway? We're here to take this land as rightfully ours." A few men in the background pumped their weapons in the air and voiced their agreements.
"Who am I?" Inuyasha rumbled as he dramatically drew Tessaiga from its sheath, "I am Lord Inuyasha, Lord of the demon's and you're standing in my kingdom." He said gravely.
The demeanor in the clearing changed and the cocky man's smile slid into a concerned frown. A few of the men in the back of the group began to slowly retreat into the tree line as they weighed the importance of their own lives. A few of the men weren't ready to give up and charged forward swords ready and gun firing erratically. Inuyasha turned Tessaiga to them and effortlessly obliterated the few men with a wind scar. The other men watched in horror at the sheer power the half-demon wielded from his sword and hesitantly remained in place.
"I warned you but you insist on me removing you all myself. I won't be so easy on the rest of you humans!" he roared as he brought Tessaiga up to use another wind scar. However, the attack never came. Instead a small hand appeared on his shoulder, begging him to spare the lives of the men and let them go. A small woman in priestess's clothing appeared from behind the demon Lord and tried to reason with him.
"A… A priestess? The demon vermin has a priestess held captive!" one of the men shouted. Inuyasha's head snapped from the priestess's eyes to the group of men before him. This time, Inuyasha wasted no time in pushing Kagome to the side and letting another wind scar rip through the meadow and disintegrate the trespassers.
"She is none of your concern!" Inuyasha roared as he quickly advanced on the rest of the men in the clearing.
Kagome was speechless. Inuyasha had just slaughtered a lot of humans right before her eyes. For what purpose? To maintain a feared status among other humans who might dare stand up to him? To perhaps keep her out of harms way? Although the men took a particular interest in her she somehow doubted it. She felt sick to her stomach. He knew they were no match for him and using such awesome power was on them was just a horrendous show of power. The only other time she had seen him so carelessly kill humans was the time he turned into a demon and massacred an entire band of bandits. She looked at him incredulously when he turned to her. Either he didn't notice or didn't care because he grabbed her wrist and shoved her to Shippo.
"Shippo, take Kagome to the palace. Get her there quickly and safely." Inuyasha said before turning away from the pair and disappearing into the woods.
Before Kagome knew it, Shippo had transformed into a large bird once again and Kagome was holding his sleeping apprentice in her arms. They soared high in the air quickly and silently through the still night. Shippo hadn't said a word to her since they had left so it left Kagome to her thoughts alone.
"I can't believe Inuyasha killed all of those men. It's like it didn't even bother him to do it." Kagome finally said out loud.
"To be fair, he doesn't really ever do that. The last time he did that was when that priestess tricked him, I think. Everyone knows about that. Other than that his armies do most of the killing." Shippo offered.
"Then what caused him to do it today?" Kagome asked.
"You were there on the battlefield and could have been in danger. Inuyasha isn't one to take chances." Shippo said this as if it were the most obvious fact in the world. "Plus they saw that you were a priestess."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Kagome asked, completely ignoring that sentiment about Inuyasha being concerned with her safety.
"Well, everyone knows what happened to Ubanaki. Nobody realizes that she had cursed Inuyasha, therefore forfeiting her purity and giving into the dark priestess practices. As far as everyone was concerned she was going to be a hero. I wouldn't be surprised if they saw you and honestly feared for your safety. This will most likely cause some problems as priestesses are highly respected, and not saving a priestess that's in trouble is an omen. I'd imagine Inuyasha would like to avoid as many conflicts as possible but now that those men know it's going to get political." Shippo explained.
"So he just kills them." Kagome stated plainly.
"Hmm... yeah that's about right." Shippo shrugged from beneath her. Kagome sighed; obviously her human empathy was not going to get through to him. What she thought was an atrocity was just politics to demon-kind.
Kagome hadn't realized that she'd nodded off until they landed in front of the palace gates. Kagome slid off of Shippo, the sleeping wombat demon still cradled in her arms as she walked through the slowly opening gates to the fortress. Within a minute of their arrival servants began to trickle out of the palace to tend to the trio's needs.
"Kagome! You're back!" she heard Misuzu call out from behind.
"You say that as if you're surprised." Kagome remarked as the demoness danced to her side.
"Ah… well. I believed you'd pass the test and that you'd come back!" Misuzu awkwardly dug her toes into the ground.
"Wait – what? Today was a test?" Kagome asked unbelievingly.
"Lord Inuyasha told us that if you came back that you'd passed the test." Misuzu sheepishly grinned.
"So you sent me off this morning knowing that I might die today?" Kagome asked sardonically, remembering what Inuyasha had said earlier that day about 'being the one to kill her – but not yet' – or something to that effect. The test must have been something to do with that hill because she couldn't imagine Inuyasha would be so willing to comfort her before arriving there. She wanted to be angry at him for putting her up to another test but she just simply didn't have the energy for that for now. At least he had allowed her to visit Miroku and Sango's graves and have the closure she so desperately needed.
"I believed you'd be coming back to us because I know that you're the real Kagome." Misuzu beamed as she took the sleeping, injured wombat demon from Kagome's arms.
"Well I'm glad I have at least one person on my side of the issue." Kagome grinned.
"Ah, ah, ah," Misuzu wagged a finger at her after passing the apprentice to another servant, "We're all on your side now - even the Lord. That was the whole point of today."
Kagome sighed relief as she felt the weight of the world lift from her shoulders. She'd spent every day for over a month sleeping on a dungeon floor and had been treated as a prisoner because nobody believed that she was the Kagome. Perhaps she could feel safer now in Inuyasha's presence now that he believed her. Kagome was glad that they could finally put this issue to rest and move on. Rest – Oh that sounded lovely.
Kagome yawned and the ever-perceptible moth demoness didn't miss it. "Come, we'll get you set up in your new quarters." She said as she skipped ahead.
Kagome looked back at Shippo before leaving the courtyard. He was busy talking to a group of armed men but took a moment to nod and smile to Kagome. Kagome gave him a small wave and turned to leave but nearly bumped into someone blocking her way. She looked up to a pair of heterochromatic eyes; one crystalline blue and the other a burning red. It was the horned man, the one that Inuyasha called Takakazu. His wide and iron plated frame effectively blocked her path and kept her corralled in front of him.
"I see that you're still alive." He said caustically, "That must mean that you're really the one we've been searching for all of these years." He continued, his tone suddenly alarmingly honeyed and sweet.
"I am. That's what I've been telling you all the entire time." Kagome fought the urge to shy away from him or fidget under his intense, scorching watch. So instead she squared her shoulders and stared him right in his creepy eyes. Why did she feel the need to act so defensively in his presence? She imagined that anyone would act this way after said person allowed you to withstand horrible abuse and torture.
"Glad to hear it. My apologies for your mistreatment during our… introduction to one another." He bowed ever so slightly, a gesture that paired well with his half-assed apology. "I must go now. It seems like our lord has gone off and started more trouble with the humans." He said as he purposefully strode past Kagome. "Why he doesn't just kill every last whimpering one of them is lost on me. I'd rather be done with it, don't you agree?" he asked her but Kagome refused to turn and humor him with her flaring temper. That's all he wanted was a rise out of her. He was rude, cold, uncaring, and dangerous. She would not play his mind games.
"Alright men, we'll head west to aid the Lord and escort him back to the palace" Takakazu shouted over the murmur of voices in the courtyard.
Kagome marched off to the court where she found Misuzu waiting and chatting excitedly to other servants. Kagome turned and peeked back out into the courtyard where she saw all of the soldiers preparing to depart but didn't see any sign of the demon called Takakazu.
Misuzu led the both of them through the palace and back to the long hall that passed over the ravine to Lord Inuyasha's wing. Nothing had changed, all of the ancient relics were still impeccably placed and the flags still strung from the ceiling supports.
Kagome froze in her tracks, "Misuzu. I'm not sharing a room with Inuyasha, am I?" she asked nervously.
"Oh is that what you want? I'm sure I could make a few arrangements…?" Misuzu asked mischievously while winking flirtily at Kagome.
Kagome's stomach tumbled at the thought of sleeping in a bed while the hollow and gaunt eyes of a dead woman watched you high up on a wall. "That was the least of my concerns." Kagome mumbled to herself.
"There is a guest chamber adjacent to the Lord's that he has requested you make yourself comfortable in."
"He requested? He wants me to use a spare bedroom near his? Since when did I suddenly become so respectable? Am I really going to go from sleeping on a dungeon floor to being neighbors with a Lord?" Kagome rolled her eyes. Why couldn't he have given her this test a month ago?
"So it seems that you have a special place in our Lord's heart. That's a good start to breaking the curse." Misuzu chimed.
The curse. While it had been at the forefront of her mind lately, she'd completely forgotten that she needed to break it. Not only did she need to break the curse, but also she needed to do it before Inuyasha completely lost his soul to it. Inuyasha had mentioned that the purple marks appeared suddenly one day, meaning that as time wore on that he was losing the battle. The demon blood slowly taking over was beginning to have some physical effects as well – not good. Damn, how long did she have? He could turn tomorrow and never turn back. And now she'd be separated by only a measly stone wall. Great.
Kagome groaned out loud and Misuzu shot her a despondent frown. Kagome internally kicked herself. "No, ugh. I wasn't reacting like that to your statement about the curse. I was just – uh – ugh never mind." Kagome tried but quickly gave up when Misuzu seemed uninterested with her excuse.
The two women reached the lobby of Inuyasha's wing and the demoness pointed to the door on the right.
"This is where you will sleep. As you know, the Lord's quarters are in the middle and to the left is a private baths. He gave no instruction, but I suggest that if you do use his baths you do it quickly and discreetly. He would not like to have to wait on you to finish." She instructed seriously. Kagome had to stifle a snicker: since when had Inuyasha become so particular about his bathing and preening?
Kagome shrugged and started toward the door. "Oh, and Kagome?" Kagome looked back at the young woman inquisitively. "Have a good night. Things will only get better from here on out."
For the first time in a long time Kagome offered what she hoped was an optimistic smile. "Possibly." Was all she said in response before disappearing behind the door.
