Sorry for the long update, school/sports/college preparation sucks; no, not really. Enjoy this chapter and try to read carefully.
Finding a good title for this chapter was so hard since it had to start with K…
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Kismet
Noun – fate; destiny
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The wind blew gently across Inuyasha's face. He kept his eyes completely on Kagome. His jacket was around her tightly, yet her body was still cold and her face was still burning. He had to find a way to dry her of her soaking clothes.
Everything things went wrong, it was because of him. This feeling of regret and longing swept over him like a rushing wave of water. Inuyasha had never felt this way. His actions never mattered. He never looked at the consequences; he just kept moving on with each day.
Quickly, he moved into the forest and gathered some dry branches and leaves for a fire. He gathered it into a small pile a couple feet away from Kagome and took the lantern's fire to set the twigs aflame. Soon the fire grew strong and Kagome began to stir.
Inuyasha looked over at her. "Kagome…" it came out as nearly a whisper.
Her limp body merely moaned. She did not have the energy to even open her eyes to respond to the voice.
"Kagome," Inuyasha spoke again- this time strong. He couldn't bear to see her in this agony. Even with the fire ablaze, Kagome's body still shivered.
Slowly, Kagome opened her eyes. She looked around slowly to take in the scenery. "What… happened?" she asked barely audible.
Inuyasha didn't know how to respond to this. Silence overcame them. "I found you on the shore," he finally answered her. "You were wet… You swam here, didn't you?"
During this time, Kagome had re-closed her eyes. The experiences rushed back to her. She had swam towards this island- what had she been thinking? The water was so cold. The clothes stuck to her, yet warmth was flowing through her. The fire illuminated in her face. She pushed herself up from the ground. Her legs were weak beneath her, and Inuyasha caught her before she fell.
"Thanks," She said, while trying to hide a small blush that overcame face. For the first time in her life, she actually appreciated his company. Inuyasha placed his hands around her waist and steadied her back down.
"I want to go look for the clue now. We don't have that much time till morning," Kagome said.
Inuyasha nearly had forgotten about the clue. Too many things had preoccupied his mind until now. "Are you sure you're okay? We can go back some other time. You're still weak."
Concern about her shocked Kagome. She had not expected such acts of kindness from Inuyasha, who was usually emotionless and bitter. "I'm fine. We need to find it. I've waited my entire life for this. And plus, the members of the crew would be wondering where I am in the morning."
Inuyasha nodded his head slowly in agreement. "Let's go then." He grabbed Kagome hand and eased her up. She walked slowly forward; each step was taken with care.
"Do you know where the memorial is?" Inuyasha asked, seeing that they were just waling aimlessly further and further into the forest.
Kagome stopped walking. Her sense of direction was lost. She didn't know if they were just walking in circles. "From what I read in the book, I believe that Vestode H. Fealis' memorial should be located directly in the center of this island."
"Well, that makes things easy." Inuyasha turned his face upwards. He looked for the North Star. The skies were clear and he found it with ease. "This way," he pointed his finger northward.
The forest was thick and walking through it became harder as they walked toward the center. Suddenly, a clearing ahead of them appeared.
Inuyasha and Kagome stopped at the clearing to take in the scene in front of them. There was one single stone fountain lay in the middle. The area had been cleared off all trees and wild flowers grew around the fountain in remembrance of Vestode H. Fealis. The clearing was in the shape of a circle and the fountain seemed to represent Vestode H. Fealis's glory. Unfortunately, there was no water. The fountain stood erect, lacking all emotion.
"What now?" she sighed. She walked over to the fountain to examine the plaque. It didn't look like anything but ordinary. The plaque merely read, "In honor of the Devil of the Seas. May his soul rest peacefully."
Kagome shook her head. "There isn't anything special about these words," Inuyasha commented from behind her.
"Maybe I made a wrong assumption about the last clue. Maybe we weren't supposed to go here. Maybe this is just a lost cause." Kagome seemed fatigued. She sat down. Nothing mattered. She wasn't even scared of Inuyasha getting angry. To her surprise, he wasn't.
"We can make this work. Where else would we have been able to go to find Vestode H. Fealis. This is the place. We just got here. Let's look around some more."
After several hours of provoking thoughts, the sun was just appearing above the horizon. "How about this," Inuyasha yawned, "we should go back to the ship, get some water and make this fountain work. There is nothing left here."
"I don't know how that would work…" her mind didn't seem to be functioning. The trees were spinning about her. She sat down again before she collapsed.
Inuyasha noticed that Kagome was trying to suppress her weakness. He walked towards her and placed his hand over her forehead. "You still have a fever. We should just go back to the ship. This can wait."
"No. Why don't you just go back and get some water. I'll be fine."
Somehow, Inuyasha didn't believe those words, but reluctantly he left her and jogged back to the shore. He fortunately had left a bucket in his rowboat in case he had gotten a leak. The bucket was of decent size, but he would still have to make a couple trips to fill up the fountain.
Inuyasha filled up the bucket and carefully ran back to the fountain. Just as he was going to empty the bucket into the fountain, two words caught his eye. There was an engraving at the bottom of the fountain.
It read: Protect thyself.
Kagome noticed his sudden behavior, "What's wrong?"
"The bottom of the fountain, it says 'protect thyself.'"
"Are we in some sort of danger?" Kagome asked cautiously, while looking around.
"I don't know…" he responded, "What kind of danger would we be in?" He then poured in the bucket of water, disregarding the words. The water merely filled a quarter of the fountain.
Quickly, he ran back to the ocean, got another bucket full of water and ran back to the fountain. After he poured the water into the fountain, he turned towards Kagome. Her eyes were focused on the ground instead of the fountain.
"It's leaking," she said in astonishment.
Inuyasha looked at where she was staring, there were three curves on the ground. "Great," he said, "now I have to fill it even more and faster."
With that said, he ran off. Kagome was still looking at the earth before her. The three curves were symmetrical, all curving the same way into the ground, towards her. She squinted her eyes.
After four more buckets, the fountain was full. However, the leaks did not stop, it kept going. Inuyasha stood by Kagome. The three streaks of line in the ground were now curving, making three identical circles. It became apparent what it said:
666
The two stood speechlessly, neither knew what to say. The number of the Devil lay across the ground in front of them. It was big and clear and the water shimmered with the sun.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Inuyasha asked without turning his eyes.
"I see it. 666."
"So protect thyself and the Devil's Number…we have to protect ourselves from the Devil!" He figured.
"And the devil is Vestode H. Fealis? This is nothing more than a circle. We're back to where we started when we figured out Mr.Fealis."
Both of them did not know what to do. However, their ship was leaving, they needed to go back.
"Why don't we figure this out at the seas?" Inuyasha suggested.
"Okay," she nodded. He helped her stand up, but she fell into his arms again. Without thinking, he scooped her up into his arms and started walking back to the ship.
"Thanks," she smiled. He merely nodded. She was too weak to refuse his act of kindness.
As they neared the ship, Inuyasha tried to think of many ways of how he and Kagome could get onto the ship at the same time, without anyone getting suspicious. Many pirates had already seen him and Kagome together within these past weeks, which caused some questioning and rumors. However, he merely stopped the rumors before they got too far.
Inuyasha put her gently onto his rowboat and slowly rowed it to his ship.
Kagome gazed at the starry sky. "So, what are you going to say to them about me?" She asked without looking at him.
"Don't worry about it," he answered and smiled.
It was the first time Kagome saw his smile.
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If any of you guys read this chapter carefully enough. 'Protect thyself' has nothing to do with the fountain, but does have something to do with 666 and the history of it. That was a big hint. Have fun and please review. Thanks!