Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I give all my thanks to Rumiko Takahashi for bringing that extraordinary story to life! You rock!

A/N: Here it is! Before you read 30, please review! I love you guys! :D

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: IF LOOKS COULD KILL

"Uh… Inuyasha? Not that I'm not thrilled to have your undivided attention but would you mind not staring at me like you're trying to decide whether or not to kill me?"

He didn't grin tauntingly like I'd expected. "Keh. It'd be easier to do that if I wasn't actually trying to decide that."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, Inuyasha."

The vertigo had faded almost completely by now, and I stood and did what I thought was a fairly natural thing to do—reach down to pick up the Orb, which, I noticed rather guiltily, was lying abandoned on the floor.

Inuyasha reacted as if I had just proposed to set off a bomb to destroy Tokyo (not an entirely hypothetical scenario for the future, let me remind you).

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Cleaning up after your mess," I retorted, my hand en route to touch the surface of the Orb of Night, all previous misgivings about it nearly forgotten.

Memory is funny that way. Something that can seem like life or death one moment… can vanish entirely the next.

Or maybe that's just me.

Inuyasha started turning blue, and I vaguely wondered if he was going to choke. "My mess—MY fucking mess?!"

His language distracted me, and I glanced at him. "Well, yeah. You knocked me over, and I dropped the Orb. Therefore, it's your mess."

Can half demons have aneurysms?

"Get the hell away from that thing!" Inuyasha snarled, grabbing me and pushing me aside.

He was gentler this time—meaning that I didn't fall against the wall and nearly split my skull open. So, yes, an improvement. Does that mean I like being grabbed by rude half demon guys who love to push my buttons? Heck no.

But it was the tone of his voice… the frantic light in his eyes… that grabbed my attention. Not his actions.

Rin's voice was quiet. "He's really worried about you," she whispered to me.

Inuyasha's eyes widened. "K-keh! No I'm not. I don't give a—"

"Damn, we know," Sango finished for him, rolling her eyes and smiling skeptically at Miroku.

"I really pity you sometimes, Inuyasha," Miroku said, shaking his head at him. He glanced at me, too—also somewhat pityingly, I noticed to my annoyance and his misfortune. "You're going to have your hands full, Miss Kagome."

Turning to Inuyasha, I sighed and said, "Look. I get that you have some kind of multiple personality disorder and social handicap. I completely get that. But I still have to put that Orb back on its pedestal. If I don't, I'll get in trouble with Kaede—and I'm not even supposed to be touching the Orb in the first place."

"You're gonna get in trouble? Give me a front row seat and a soda, and I'll be there to watch, wench."

That's what I expected him to say… but it's not what he said.

"You can't do what anyone tells you, can you?" Inuyasha snapped. "If she told you not to touch the damn Orb, why did you?!"

"Since when do you care about breaking the rules?!"

Sango glanced between us, finally saying, "We wanted to see her hold the Orb, it's not her fault. Besides, Kagome's right. You never care about breaking the rules."

"Keh. This is different."

Something about the way he looked away from me like I wasn't worth looking at… something about how he crossed his arms across his chest and leaned angrily against the wall… it made me snap, and before I knew it I was screaming.

"YEAH? How the heck is it different?!" I breathed deeply, trying and failing to calm myself. My vision was going red. A blue aura appeared around Inuyasha—if he's not careful he's going to end up a pile of dust. I spent several minutes thinking of something I could say that would bother him the most. Something that would make him turn and glare at me—and most importantly, yell back. I wanted a full on shouting match… and I found the thing that could get me one.

"This is about Kikyo, isn't it?"

The room went deadly silent.

Sango and Miroku stiffened, turning to stare at me in disbelief. Rin, beside me, grabbed my arm—though whether it was to protect me or to hide from the suddenly motionless Inuyasha, I'm not sure.

My eyes were on him.

If I'd been myself, I probably would have realized that I had just crossed the wrong line. But unfortunately, I was too angry to care. I was too angry to wonder where the anger was even coming from.

But when his eyes glared like daggers into mine, it was enough to almost make me forget where I was.

Kagome Higurashi.

1994-2010.

Murdered by an insane inuhanyou for talking about his ex-girlfriend.

Rest In Peace.

"You want to say that again, wench?" he asked quietly, raising his eyebrows and flexing his claws.

Gulp.

But I stood up straight, squaring my shoulders. This was the moment. This was the moment when I could get answers… well unless he killed me first.

"Yeah," I said loudly. "I do.

"This. Is. About. KIKYO."

I thrust the last word in his face without thinking about the consequences, and Inuyasha's glare intensified until it nearly burned a hole through my skull.

"Who told her about Kikyo?" he growled, not looking away from my face.

I felt almost as bad for Sango and Miroku as I did for myself.

"Um… we would be guilty in that regard?" Miroku almost asked, his voice shrinking until it was barely a squeak.

Sango stood straighter, not willing to quail before Inuyasha's wrath—primarily, for the moment, directed at me, may I add. "She had a right to know," Sango said flatly.

"Yeah? Who gave her that right?"

I knew he was talking to them… but still, his eyes were on me.

"You did!" Sango said louder. "By being an ass. She deserved to know at least something about why you treat her this way."

Inuyasha's fists clenched, and for the briefest moment the fury faded from his face… not his eyes, though. His eyes remained the same.

"And how do I treat her?"

Now it was my turn to be dubious. "I don't know," I said sarcastically. "Like dirt, maybe?"

Most of the time. Not always. Sometimes you can be nice, Inuyasha… and if you were like that more of the time… I think we could be friends.

Too bad you're a jerk.

"Keh. You are dirt."

This was different. It wasn't the kind of, Keh. You are dirt, that I could just brush off with a flick of my hand. Something about these words… infused with such loathing and anger and pain… stayed with me. They didn't hurt my feelings; they didn't bring tears to my eyes.

They scared me.

Unwilling to show my fear, I smiled hopefully and said, "Well if I'm dirt, there's no need to kill me, right?"

Agonizingly slowly, Inuyasha straightened his shoulders and narrowed his eyes.

And walked toward me.

I grabbed Rin and pushed her towards Sango and Miroku. Whatever was about to happen between me and Inuyasha would only be between me and Inuyasha. If this is my last day on Earth, I'm sure as hell not going to let Rin get caught in the crossfire.

Oh, and Inuyasha? If I go down, I take you with me.

Unfortunately, that is looking harder and harder with every passing second.

"Ask your question. One more time."

I was silent. I couldn't speak.

"One." Step closer. "More." Steps closer. "Time."

Was not on my side, because now he towered over me.

With muscles, demon powers, and insanity… Inuyasha would make a pretty good serial killer.

And I had to speak. Except I didn't know if I could.

"This is about Kikyo." I could feel the confidence draining from my voice, and I knew he could hear it. "Isn't it?"

If looks could kill… I'd be long dead.

And then he grabbed my shoulder and I closed my eyes, waiting to die.

"You FUCKING STUPID MORON!"

He slammed me into the wall and my eyes snapped open… a reflex which I instantly regretted, because I could now see the red rims around his eyes. Not a good sign, in my experience.

"Inuyasha, control yourself!" Miroku shouted.

"Stay outta this!" Inuyasha snapped. "Wench, you wanna know about Kikyo? Fine. I'll tell you about her. It only takes a few seconds, anyway. I hated her with all my gut for awhile, until I started getting to know her. We started going out. I helped her fight demons and stuff. Then one day, she came to class fucking screaming at me… said I'd cheated on her or something, insulted her, used her, broke her heart, I don't know, I don't get it cause I never did it. So I tried to explain to her that I didn't have a fucking clue what she was fucking talking about, but NO she went and broke up with me and it was the worst—and only—break-up I've ever had, probably cause it was over FUCKING NOTHING. I tried to talk to her about it for a few days, but she steered clear of me and eventually I decided I'd give her time to cool off. Three days later she's dead, lying bloodless in THIS den cause I didn't try hard enough to make up with her. If I'd been there to protect her it wouldn't have happened, but it did happen, and she's not gonna fucking come back to life so I knew I had to get over her. And I did. Kikyo's history. Does that mean I like talking about her? Hell no. Does that mean I like talking about her with some stupid priestess girl that even kinda looks like her?! No fucking way. But could you mind your own fucking business? No you couldn't. Of course not. You don't have a clue how to keep your damn mouth shut, and someday somebody's gotta teach you or you'll fucking pay for it."

"So are you here to teach me or make me pay for it?!" I snapped.

"I don't know, wench, I haven't decided yet."

"So you don't like seeing me hold the Orb of Night because it reminds you of when your beloved Kikyo held it," I seethed, unsure why I was so angry because for one thing I already knew that… and for another I was scared out of my mind.

"No! How many fucking times do I have to beat that into your head? This has nothing to do with Kikyo."

"Then what do you have against me being able to hold the Orb of Night?!"

"Cause you can't! IT'S FUCKING POSSESSING YOU!"

If there's one thing that can shut me up, it's people telling me I'm being possessed by a sphere of demons.

The room went deadly quiet. Sango and Miroku stared at us in disbelief, Rin in a mixture of fear and concern. But I… for once, I was silent.

It's possessing me.

The Orb of Night is possessing me.

And in that moment, I knew he was absolutely right. But if he was angry about me holding it because he could sense what it was doing to me… how could he sense it and why did he care?

I swear, the guy makes himself impossible on purpose.

"Ah!"

I gasped as I felt Inuyasha's claws penetrate my skin, blood trickling down my left arm. Suddenly I wondered whether he intended to kill me after all.

The pain hit after the fear. And it stung.

"Inuyasha…" I said softly.

Inuyasha blinked, almost as if awakening from a sleep. It was as if he was surprised to find himself here… with his claws digging into my flesh.

His eyes widened, the red receding, his hands releasing me as if burned. He stared at me in shock… eyes landing on my arm.

He'd hurt me. He'd freaking hurt me.

He'd hurt me because I mentioned Kikyo. And for some reason, the fact that this was about her… and the fact that I'm not her… kindled my anger and fed it oxygen.

When he spoke, his voice was very quiet. But that didn't serve to abate my growing fury.

"Did I…?"

Yes. You did.

And because he did, I wrenched my good arm backward and slapped him across the face.

Really, really hard.

A/N: Sorry if Kagome was a little OOC; but in my defense, she gave Inuyasha quite a lot of sit's in the anime and manga, and if that isn't violent I don't know what is. I really hope you don't think she was too OOC, and if she was I hope it didn't bother you too much! Anyway, review and tell me! Read on :).