20th Chapter: The Glitch

A/N: Wow… twenty chapters. I never dreamed it would actually go this far… huh. Well anyway this one is a little longer than the last one. Anyway, sorry about the sickening amount of cheesiness poured onto Inuyasha's thoughts. (Urkl! – noise one makes when choking on far too much cheese) I couldn't help it! And they're pretty rough too. Couldn't seem to get them right. You'd be amazed how hard it is to write meaningful stuff from his POV. (looks annoyed) Geez.

Disclaimer: These things are really getting annoying. "Inuyasha"… it ain't mine.

The Glitch

The two figures sat together, each cross-legged and positioned on the edge of the forest at the outskirts of the village. Their bodies were perfectly still and their downcast faces were stony with serious thoughts.

Miroku's thick black hair fell into his murky violet eyes as he blinked, his handsome features lost in contemplation. His golden staff rested over his chest and on his left shoulder, the bar running along beside his face, the holy symbol on top gleaming just above the top of his head. Across from him, Inuyasha sat the same position, his now-sheathed sword lay over his shoulder in a similar fashion.

"A predicament indeed." The monk said quietly, after a while.

"You're telling me."

Miroku raised his head to stare at his friend. It seemed as if they were once more caught in a hopeless situation. "You mean to tell me that she doesn't remember anything."

"Not a damned thing." The golden eyes readily glared at the interrogation he was receiving from his friend.

"And you haven't been able to make any kind of progress with her?" The monk asked, frowning slightly, a skeptical eyebrow raised. He hadn't meant any harm by it, but apparently it was the wrong thing to say.

"You don't think I've been trying?" Inuyasha immediately became angry. "In case you haven't noticed I've been running around after her for the past ten days trying to tell her the truth! But she won't listen to me!"

Miroku's face became ever more doubtful as he gave Inuyasha a look. The hanyou was now kneeling instead of sitting, his sword gripped in one hand, the other bracing on his knee, half standing off the rock, as if ready for a physical fight. Miroku sighed inwardly. Lately it seemed that Inuyasha had somehow become even more hot-tempered than usual, if that was even possible, and the monk had learned to ignore it. "Considering the decimal of your voice as of late, I'd say she'd have little choice in the matter."

"That's not what I mean." Inuyasha snapped, now standing completely upright and glowering down at Miroku. "She's not…" he seemed to search for words before giving up, growling slightly as he walked around to the other side of the rock to stand rigidly, his fists clenched and his movements tight as he reattached his sword to his side. " She just isn't… listening."

Miroku frowned, turning Inuyasha's words over and over in his head. But he couldn't quite grasp the meaning behind them. "I fail to understand."

At that the hanyou scoffed coldly and sat back down, returning to his original position. "Join the club."

Inuyasha couldn't explain exactly what it was that he was trying to say. He wasn't even sure he understood it himself anymore. He was just so… frustrated. Things were getting garbled inside his head… fragments of thoughts raced around his head, blurring into each other, bashing around in his mind, bleeding into the borders of reason until he was sure that his brain had turned to a pile of mashed up mush. That's what it felt like anyway.

And all of the chaos and confusion was centered around Kagome. What should he do to help her? What could he do? He had to be able to do something. He couldn't stand the thought that she was simply standing right there in front him… and he couldn't reach her. She refused to allow herself to be reached; she just wouldn't listen to him.

And it wasn't as if she couldn't hear him, because he knew she could hear him. He was reminded of that bitterly as his sore ear tweaked painfully on his head. But she didn't… understand him. Not like she used to.

The old Kagome could understand what he was feeling when he talked to her, even when he was trying his hardest to hide himself away. Somehow she had always been able to find him. But he hadn't realized until recently that a part of him had actually relied on her to always find him, even when the rest of him desperately didn't want to be found.

She had had a way of looking at him, of listening to him with those intensely focused eyes… beautiful dark eyes… and suddenly she was able to see right through him. Through all the walls and shields he had put up. The ones that hid himself and his weaknesses from the world. The ones he had thought were unbreakable… she could see through them, and then she could look at the inside… and be with him. He couldn't explain it any other way. But now that her memory was gone… she had left him. And he was even lonelier than he had been before she came.

Before Kagome, he had always been able to conceal himself from the world. He had always been alone… on the inside at least. Even when he was with Kikyo, they merely been together on the outside; She had never really understood him. So when Kagome had first come along, barged right into his heart and plopped herself down beside him, refusing to move away and leave him alone, it had been quite the nasty surprise. He had felt so uncomfortable… so unnerved, so thrown-off by the fact that she had so easily come to be with him, the real him, and she wasn't afraid. She could see him. And understand him. On the inside. And she absolutely refused to let him be lonely anymore.

It had scared him… a little. In the begging it had scared him to death. To actually be with someone. But now… now that he knew her, knew her sweet, funny smile and beautiful, dark eyes, now that he had come to care so fiercely about her, she had gone…

He had realized then that he had loved her for it… for her just being able to be with him. Even though in the begging it had been annoying as hell, the way she used to be able to pick him apart and destroy his defenses; the way she saw the real him… So easily, effortlessly, she saw the young man inside him who he didn't always like so much, who stayed buried under sharp glares and harsh words and acts of false insensitivity. And she had put herself so close to him… so very, very close, and taken his hand, refusing to let it go, somehow knowing that he was lonely. But now he found that, strangely enough, it was what he missed about her the most. Yes, he missed her. But now she had come back. So why wasn't she listening anymore? Why wasn't she there, inside his heart, being with him, the real him? How had she allowed herself to forget?

"Well, Inuyasha?"

"What?"

Miroku stared at hard at him. "I asked 'where is she now?'"

"She's at Kaede's. Sango's been checking in on her."

"Hasn't Kaede made any progress?"

"No. Stupid old hag's not back from her journey yet."

Miroku's frown deepened as he studied the forest floor beneath him. "Aren't you worried that it's taken her so long to return?"

Inuyasha's breath caught for a moment in his chest and he blinked, the thought striking him over the head like a brick. He hadn't been worried, but it just occurred to him that he should have been. Upon Sango and his return, the villagers had explained that Kaede had gone off on some sort of calling, a meeting between the neighboring villages and their own. As head miko, Kaede, five other men and Shippo surprisingly, had left for the meeting place. But apparently that had happened a little over a month ago. And they still hadn't come back.

A small feeling of guilt started to intrude upon his already-overwhelmed conscious. He had been so wrapped up in a memory-less Kagome and a then-unconscious Miroku that he hadn't given anything else much of a second thought. But now… he was starting to worry. Where was she? And where was Shippo?

IN KAEDE'S HUT:

It had been a week and a half. An entire bloody week and a half, and she was still stuck with these crazy people. Kagome sat in the corner of the strange, alien hut, her arms crossed across her chest as if to guard herself from the cold, but there wasn't even the slightest chill in the afternoon air.

She was curled in the corner of the one-roomed house, her knees tucked up and her face turned down. She looked as if she were hiding, or trying to somehow protect herself from attack. She was after all, in the enemy's territory. And she was still trying to find a way out. But there didn't appear to be one. She had tried running. Lots of running. But it was useless. Inuyasha was always coming after her. Just like he said he would that day in the forest. Somehow he always seemed to be able to catch her, no matter how fast she was or how clever her plans. He was always there to stop her.

'And even if I did get away from him… where would I go?' She wondered, her entire concentration directed inward, lost inside a maze of drifting thoughts. She had withdrawn from the outside world and was now brooding inwardly, oblivious to the things going on around her. Her reflections and recollections churning like the sea in her mind as she tried to find a hint, or even just a little glitch, the realization that would allow her to finally get away. But she didn't find it. She was begging to think that it wasn't even there.

'Besides…' She thought carefully to herself. 'He hasn't hurt me yet. Maybe he won't do it if he hasn't already…' Kagome stiffened, wanting suddenly to slap herself for what she had just allowed herself to think. Inuyasha was a murderer, and also, from what she could tell, a stubborn, selfish, egotistical, pig-headed jerk. And he just wouldn't let her get away. And he wouldn't stop lying either. All these lies about this "Kagome" person… was she even real?

She had to get out, she told herself. She had to.

She wouldn't admit that the real reason she was feeling so anxious lately was because she was guilty… guilty because she was begging to be… comfortable. She wasn't afraid anymore, even when she was trying to be afraid. Despite her constant efforts to get away, and her 24/7 arguing with the silver-haired boy who kept her here, there was something about her situation that felt a little… natural.

'No.' She thought bluntly, catching herself. 'It's just your imagination. You can't start feeling comfortable here… not with him… he killed Tetsuya's mother and…'

A coldness swept through her with amazing force, making her insides freeze over and shatter. She had tried all week and a half not to think about the body, distracting herself with plans to get away and thoughts about escape. But she had had nightmares… nightmares of those cold green eyes and paper-white flesh… rotting on her own, crushing her, suffocating her with the stench of death.

Kagome took a shuddering breath and blinked back the tears. She was begging to wonder if she would ever be able to forget about those blank green yes… staring at her. She knew couldn't let herself think about him. She couldn't. Because if she started thinking about that night and the body in her closet… she knew that she would lose her control, and she couldn't afford to do that. Not now. Not around him. She could never show Inuyasha and his friends that on the inside she was starting to weaken…

The afternoon sunlight flooded over her face without warning, blinding her and making her vision ache for a moment at the harsh brightness. Blinking, she looked up and squinted through the dusty sunlight to see the darkened figure of a woman was there again, Sango. Her face was grim and serious, and Kagome returned the expression. She had to be like a rock. She couldn't show her real emotions. It wasn't safe. Not around these people. (A/N: Now who does that remind you of? cough!cough!Inuyasha!cough:D)

"Hey." The girl said, her voice a little careful and a little… pitying.

Kagome only stared silently, and both of them stayed that way for a while, locked in some sort of weird competition of endurance that both of them mentally acknowledged but had unconsciously engaged. Kagome hoped that Sango didn't know that in reality, the slayer scared the living daylights out of her. Finally though, the older girl sighed and stepped into the doorframe, a small wooden tub in her right hand and the conflict was over, somehow Kagome had won.

"Look… Kagome…" she said tiredly, walking over to the corner and squatting down in front of her friend. "I'm going to go take a bath. There's a spring on the outskirts of the village and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me."

Kagome stared at Sango, shocked. "Come with you?" She asked, unable to believe her ears and momentarily forgetting that she had promised herself to be as silent as possible around these people. A promise she could never seem to keep whenever it came to Inuyasha.

"Yeah. I know you feel like you're filthy. Tell me honestly when the last time it was that you had a bath." The older girl said seriously.

Kagome blinked. It seemed like eons ago… and Sango was right; she did feel filthy. She hadn't had the chance to bathe ever since she had gotten here… God, she must have been crawling with filth. The very thought of it was enough to make her cringe. But then… if she did want to take a bath it would mean she would have to take one with this woman. And she didn't know if she felt all that comfortable with that idea.

"Come on." Sango said, smiling for the first time since Kagome had been there. "You know you want to."

Kagome felt a weird, familiar sensation when Sango was sitting there, smiling at her. Something began to tug at the corners of her mind… she could have sworn that she had seen that smile somewhere before…

"Well?"

Sango's voice snapped Kagome out of her haze and she shook the thought away, excusing it once more as "just her imagination". She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

She studied the woman in front of her a bit, looking at the cloth and oils and sheets that were folded inside. The idea of a nice hot bath was so tempting…

"Fine." She said quietly, standing up and feeling vulnerable. "I'll go with you."

"Knew you would." Sango said happily, taking her by the hand. "C'mon lets go."

And as she let the woman lead her out of the house and towards the other side of the village, she still couldn't help but think that somehow, somewhere she had seen that smile before. But no matter how hard she tried to think about it, nothing came. What she did realize though was that this was it. She had just tripped upon the glitch.

A/N: Once again, this is just a cut off from one big, ridiculously huge chapter that I have written. Geez! Well anyway the next chap is coming up in a matter of days, seeing as how I just have to read over it, and since it was supposed to be posted today as a part of this chapter. (Sigh) See you soon then.

xox - nanirain