Never was, never cared too much for all this hanging around
Thick silence hung heavy after the shrill screams that surely someone other than him had been forced to listen to finally stopped. Cut off unnaturally more like it. It had been utterly pointless to tense against his own shaking limbs but his body hadn't cared. His body did it instinctively. Trying to suppress the fight or flight response that had been demanding action for what had seemed like an eternity.
They must be gone, had to be gone or at least very far away. Letting out a shuddering breath, Jiro risked another peak over the lip of the well and saw the strange woman with her freakish silver noodles gliding away into the treeline.
"What the hell.." he breathed as he waited a few more moments before pushing himself up with shaking arms and swinging a leg over the lip of the well. Placing a single foot down, he realized too late he'd misjudged the rapid onset of shaking and his leg crumpled as soon as he put weight on it. Going down with a soft swear, he glanced around for these supposed friends of hers that surely were on their way before deciding that if they didn't come when she screamed, they sure as hell weren't going to go save her on the word of a guy they never met. It was going to have to be up to him.
Rolling onto his side, he awkwardly got to his feet and followed at a safe distance behind the undead miko when a movement in his periphery caught his attention. A girl a little older than him came walking oh so casually into the clearing. Wearing a very, very tight spandex bodysuit. That could not be comfortable in a world without AC. It just...couldn't.
Taking a shaky breath, he slowly made his way to the edge of the meadow and tried to get the woman's attention but for god knows what reason, she didn't seem to see him or react.
"Hey! Hey! You! Are you Sango?" he called out quietly before glancing over his shoulder to make sure the crazy pyscho hadn't also heard. Seeing that the woman was still walking steadily into the distance, he tried a little louder and moved a little closer when the other woman didn't react, "I said are you Sango?"
For whatever reason the woman still didn't react. With an exasperated huff, Jiro glared at the woman's back before groaning and marching up to her.
"I said are you..." Jiro demanded a little angrily as he pushed on the woman's shoulder and finally she reacted. Painfully. Quicker than he could react, he found himself flying backwards and solidly onto the hard ground with an audible 'thud'.
"What the hell?" he choked as he gasped for the air that had been knocked out of him and rolled over onto all fours, "Why?"
"Who are you?" Sango demanded angrily as she held up a giant boomerang that seemed more fitting for an alternative universe where a steroid riddled Australia had taken over than feudal Japan. Were boomerangs even a thing in this time period?
"Rude. You could've just said hello," the boy coughed hoarsely as he rubbed his chest with one hand and got unsteadily to his feet. When the woman didn't respond further, he rolled his eyes and groaned, "Listen are you Sango or not? I'm looking for a Sango."
He silently gestured to hurry up and spill as he glanced over his shoulder and saw Kikyo further still. This was a waste of time but he couldn't very well go in there alone and even with her shoot first attitude, this latest crazy person was...
"Where did you come from?" Sango asked skeptically as she held her defensive stance and narrowed her eyes.
Was not going to be helpful.
"Seriously? We're going to play twenty questions right now? You're joking, right?" Jiro groaned in frustration as he continued rubbing his sore chest. The woman merely looked more confused, more suspicious. Another glance over his shoulder told Jiro time was quick running out. If this was the backup Kagome was talking about it was no wonder that Inuyasha had been in such sad shape. This level of stupidity probably caused that type of near death experience to happen constantly.
"Fine. Whatever. Don't tell me who you are. I don't have time for this," Jiro huffed as he turned and began heading into the woods, "Whoever you are go get Sango or Miroku and bring their asses here. I think that bitch got that Inuyasha guy and now she has Kagome."
"Wait, what?" Sango blurted out before blinking rapidly when the boy disappeared before her very eyes. Breath coming out in short panicked gasps, her chocolate eyes darted anxiously around the area the boy had been before trying to follow after him. It was a trap. Probably a trap. He looked like Inuyasha but it could not have been Inuyasha. Inuyasha was back at the hut very much in half-demon form which meant this boy was an impostor. Probably someone created by Kikyo as a minion just as Naraku created his followers. After all, this random spectre had just...he just vanished! Had she officially lost her mind? This...this was...
"Hold on!" Sango called out as she hurried towards where she'd last seen the strange boy, "Who are..."
A soft 'oomph' left her lips as she crashed into an invisible yet very solid wall. A wall that existed just beyond the barrier Miroku had set up and which was slowly but noticeably getting further away. A barrier would explain why the boy had disappeared and how but still...there was something not quite right. He couldn't be a minion or even some kind of incarnation. The strange boy had been a little too earnest. A little too panicked. Spoke and dressed a little too strangely to be...wait, was he from Kagome's time?!
That raised so many questions the slayer didn't even know where to start. No one had brought this up. Not Kagome or Miroku or InuYasha...and yet here was a boy from the future who had managed to...who looked just like...
Swallowing thickly, Sango decided that these questions could wait. She had a choice to make. Pursue the barrier, the boy and Kikyo alone or circle back for the others.
Facing Kikyo by herself, to be honest, seemed like the less painful option. To say Inuyasha was going to lose his mind was destined to be the understatement of the century.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
"What do you mean he said Kagome had been captured?" InuYasha snarled through clenched teeth, "Which direction did they go?"
"I'm not sure. I couldn't follow him. There was a barrier. I'm sure Miroku will be capable of finding it again," Sango sighed miserably before cringing when InuYasha flinched and swayed slightly, "For the last time, lay back down. We can handle this."
"Oh like how you handled waiting by the well to make sure this exact scenario didn't happen?" InuYasha hissed as confidently as he could. Fighting against the sutra was proving to be too strenuous and his vision was blurring. This whole shtick was getting tedious. He should've recovered by now. He'd been his usual self for a few days. Why wasn't he getting better? This was stupid. This was so...
"Throwing blame will not change what has occurred," Miroku huffed as he rolled his eyes and pointed his staff threateningly at the half-demon, "Having you rush into battle against a foe who has already bested you will not end well. Sango and I will..."
"Kagome could be dead and you want me to take it easy?" InuYasha ground out as he forced himself into his feet - his entire body shaking from the effort of fighting the immobilizing spell before tensing and glaring at Kaede who decided she had to throw her two cents into this non-conversation.
"Ye would stand no chance against my sister in this state. Ye can barely stand," Kaede opined thoughtfully.
"Because of the damn sutra!" InuYasha countered before crumpling onto one knee, "I can fight her if someone would take it the hell off!"
"Can ye though?" Kaede hummed knowingly as she glanced at the monk and the slayer, "Do either of ye disagree?"
It was Miroku who appeared to cave first when Inuyasha sent both him and the slayer a look that screamed of them having committed the ultimate betrayal.
"We will not release you," Miroku finally sighed before adding quickly when Inuyasha snarled, "Until we have a plan. We cannot have you rushing into this battle alone. It will end poorly."
"Sango said the barrier wouldn't let her through," Inuyasha protested angrily as he forced one foot forward and shook with the effort, "If I had to guess, it's designed to only let me..."
"Do you or do you not possess a sword capable of breaking barriers?" Miroku interrupted as though the answer was obvious, "This is why we need a plan."
"Oh please we plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose," Inuyasha spat hatefully even as he blushed at the reminder. To be honest, he hadn't given a second thought to the sword on his hip since all this started. There was just a little too much going on for that to even cross his mind.
"This is why we cannot allow you to go alone," Miroku sighed, "Kikyo will have some way to capture you again. I'm sure of it."
"Or she has decided Kagome needs to go," Inuyasha snapped as he forced another foot forward, "We're wasting time!"
"Who was that boy?" Sango asked suddenly making the two men flinch and stare at her guiltily.
"Ka...Kagome didn't tell you?" Inuyasha asked quietly - momentarily distracted by the realization that Sango had attacked and assumed this was some form of trap because she honestly hadn't been told rather than being distrustful in general.
"All I know is that a boy who looked like you was in the clearing and then he wasn't," Sango huffed, "As neither of you seemed surprised by this information, I assume you both have some sort of explanation."
"He's, uh, my reincarnation, I think. From Kagome's time," Inuyasha mumbled before shaking his head and huffing in frustration, "I'll explain later. This isn't..."
"So he's from Kagome's time," Sango huffed as she refused to let it go, "And yet was able to come through the well when no one else from her time has ever done. Does that not strike you as odd?"
"Yeah well maybe Kagome can come here because Kikyo and I go there because him," Inuyasha snapped angrily as he managed to stumble closer to the door, "We can think more about that later. Right now, we need to focus on ya know making sure Kagome doesn't die. Just...just take this stupid thing off me dammit!"
"Kikyo wasn't..." Sango began to argue before talking over Inuyasha when he continued to protest, "No! This may be important! Why would the well allow him through unless he has a purpose here! Should we not try to find him first? Maybe he has information. Maybe he knows how to defeat Kikyo! Maybe even knows how to defeat Naraku!"
"Or maybe he's just here to be annoying! Who gives a shit?" Inuyasha huffed in frustration before staggering when Kaede suddenly ripped the sutra off him.
"I must agree. Ye are all wasting time," Kaede sighed as she held up the sutra and met Inuyasha's surprised but grateful gaze, "Ye need to break the barrier and not go in alone. Beyond that there is no way to anticipate what my sister may do and there is not way to be certain my sister has not gained an ability to create illusions such as the boy. Do not ye be concerned with him until ye must be. Now go."
Inuyasha didn't have to be told twice.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Blinking up at the late afternoon sky above, Kagome groaned and held a hand up to her throbbing head before rolling onto her side. In all honesty it felt like she'd been hit by a bus. Her chest felt bruised and every muscle protested loudly at even the most subtle of movements.
"You are a stubborn one," she heard an amused chuckle and in that instant, her heart plummeted into her stomach. How was it that she'd forgotten why she was in the forest in the first place?!
Before she had time to react, Kikyo's cold clammy hand was on her chest. Flexing slightly before applying just enough pressure to make the ordeal that much more uncomfortable. Like before she felt paralyzed instantly although being paralyzed and being numb were two completely different things.
Agony seared through her chest before shooting outward and lighting up every nerve in her body. More sudden and more proficient than a branding iron. Without meaning to, her body curled into something fetal, something instinct while her mind failed to bring any one thought to completion.
"He won't come for you," Kikyo murmured as she readjusted her hold and pressed more firmly, "My barrier would have allowed him to pass just as it allowed you. Why would he come for a traitor who left him to die?"
A shrill scream escaped Kagome as her chest arched towards the cold hand which pulled back just enough to...to...
"You live on borrowed time," Kikyo continued to croon as she firmly pressed her hand against her reincarnation's chest once more, "You aren't meant to be here. There will never be a place for you. Never."
Whimpering and writhing Kagome tried to protest but instead of a response, another pain filled scream escaped her lips. It felt like Kikyo was attempting to steal years of her life away. Her mind cleared for an instant as realization dawned. That was exactly what Kikyo was trying to do. But why?
Before she could wrap her mind around that horrible knowledge, the excruciating pain in her chest skyrocketed and her face contorted in agony. It increased from there in waves with only momentary lulls that gave her false hope of an end. Each peak deprived her mind of oxygen and stole her ability to think. Every beat of her heart felt like pure acid was being forced through her veins with the intent of destroying her from the inside out. It was hell and all she could do was writhe.
"Shhhh," Kikyo shushed her with a sadistic grin, "It will end soon. Either he comes for you and takes your place or our souls will join as one. Give in to your fate. He isn't coming."
A soft swear, a snapping of twigs and a flash of blue light from a disconcertingly close distance and Kikyo's hand suddenly withdrew leaving Kagome panting for breath. Instead of whatever spell immobilizing her, the lingering pain did the job just as well.
"What's this?" Kikyo murmured curiously although even in her muddled mind Kagome could hear the worry, "It can't be..."