A/N: To cite Naraku in his baboon mask - you can't see it but I'm smiling.
Beta; Cstorm86
The One Who Waited
A crow call came from over their heads and Kagome gasped, sensing youki from where she could see a dark shadow against the starry sky, approaching them fast.
A quick scan of the nearby area showed no good shelter, just trees. Hojo looked at her, pale and confused, when she started to pull Inuyasha off of the island of gravel under their feet towards one of the trees.
"What are you doing?" he gasped.
"A youkai comes. We need to hide."
"A... youkai?" he repeated, his voice weak. "Youkai are just folk tale stuff."
"Really?" she glared at him. They were wasting time! "And what was that woman that almost cut you open with her scissors? That was burned away by my white talismans?"
"A figment of imagination?" Hojo tried meekly. A part of her felt sorry for the boy, so desperately trying to cling to his logical, reasonable and realistic beliefs. "I mean... Maybe it was just a dream? I could've fallen asleep on my way? Like, dozed off while walking? I heard fresh air can do that to you."
"And who wounded Inuyasha?" Kagome growled at him, managing to somehow pull the uncertain friend to help her practically carry her unconscious friend towards the nearest thicket of bamboo. He didn't answer. "Listen, Hojo, it's not a dream. It's all real and if you want to survive, you have to do what I tell you to, okay?"
She didn't tell him that she herself didn't know what to do.
'What is the jewel doing in your paws?' at the same time as she and Hojo laid Inuyasha on the ground where the bamboo could hide him, she heard another voice, feminine and beautiful, but cold and angry. She felt her mouth move, despite not moving, and more felt than heard the reply. In the memory she heard Inuyasha's voice barking that he'd caught someone called Muso sneaking away with it. She saw a glimpse of a young miko, angrily snatching something from her hand. 'How dare you accuse my beloved! Inuyasha, you'll bite your tongue before you speak lies of those better than you!' She felt pain in her mouth and an irony taste of blood before she heard Inuyasha yelling that it was all true, that he'd caught her lover stealing artifacts from the shrine. She felt searing pain in her left shoulder when the miko from the past pinned Inuyasha to a tree with her arrow. 'Inuyasha, you will stay here until I see fit to release you, you ungrateful mutt!'
She gasped and heard a - real this time - whine from her friend. She glanced down to him and shuddered when another memory flashed in her mind.
'Inuyasha...' a girl not older than Souta, one eye covered by bandages, stood right in front of her. She reached a hand to touch his rosary, a bead of blood where her skin was cut.. A spark of reiki went through her. "Kikyou is dead. I am now your miko, Inuyasha. Your suspension is no more.' Kagome gasped when she felt her body - now kneeling on the ground - ripped the arrow off and leaped up to the trees.
"Kagome?" Hojo whispered and she sniffed, wiping the tears that were running down her cheeks with the red sleeve of her jacket. Her shoulder still ached and her mind was shaken by all the memories that had been flooding it for gods knew how long. She bit her lip, knowing it wasn't the best of times to allow the waves of fever sweep her back in the river of Inuyasha's memories. She had to see him safe and well before she could sort through all the jagged and incomplete pieces of memories, shadows of feelings, visions of long gone people that had come before her. That had hurt her brave, handsome and fierce shrine guardian.
Something thrashed against the branches somewhere above them.
"I can sense the youki! I can sense the blood! Oh, gods, how many years had passed since I tasted the great Inu no Taisho's blood!" sang a voice from above the trees, The crow cawed again and again. "I can sense the fabulous Fang of Destruction singing! Oh, such a glorious night! Where is he? Where is the one that I long to find?"
"What do we do?" Hojo asked, kneeling beside her. He glanced worriedly at the unconscious male laying on his back beside them. Kagome felt pity for the man she knew since kindergarten. She'd told him that youkai were real and that he had to listen to her, so now she should come up with an idea how to keep them all safe.
And keep the bloodthirsty crow youkai away from Inuyasha. She didn't know what Fang of Destruction and Inu no Taisho were, but it was clear the creature knew of Inuyasha's canine youkai heritage.
When the crow found its way towards the small alcove under the taller growth, Kagome and Hojo were armed with two half-dried bamboos not longer than a meter and a half. Each had a white talisman wrapped around it, dry leaves shaking as they flailed their weapons, trying to bat the bird away. Wings flapped as the crow flew away for a while to return, cawing and trying to dodge.
"Let me to him!" Kagome growled when she heard the voice from before, old and dry like the leaves that rained down from their weapons.
"No! You leave him alone!" Kagome yelled back, panting. She was swaying on her feet, feeling tired after the onslaught of emotions. Inuyasha's memories were still flashing before her eyes, blinding and making her deaf to the real world for short instances. Hojo was actually a better defender, since he was able to focus on the task. Whatever was going through his head, he wasn't trying to deny the existence of a crow loudly demanding to be let to an unconscious man and almost singing about his blood. The flashlights were stuck in the ground, providing enough light to bat at the bird, but the darkness around seemed to push on them.
'...Komainu...'
'...Abomination...'
'...Disgraceful mutt...'
'...Half-breed...'
'...Friend...'
Kagome blinked away the tears that came with the visions and the visions themselves, just to see Hojo hitting the crow as it tried to fly by him. The bird fell to the ground and rolled a few times before it got to its feet, flapped its wings a couple of times, tilted its head this side and then, cawing in what sounded like surprise. Then the crow noticed them, crouched and ready to attack.
With startled cawing the crow flew away.
"It... flew away," Hojo stated the obvious, shocked. The crow had been rather insistent on getting past them until now. He looked at Kagome. "It's good, right?"
She gave him a weak smile. "Yes. It's over." she assured the boy that so bravely fought off the youkai.
"Oh, poor, poor boy," exclaimed the old, dusty voice from behind them. "Let me end your suffering!"
With a startled gasp Kagome twirled around to look at Inuyasha. The hanyou turned human lay where they'd left him, his body shaking, sweat covering his face. His mouth hung open, as if in a voiceless cry.
Something was attached to his neck, pulsing bigger and bigger as it drank his blood.
A/N: I promise, this should be the last cliffhanger in this arc!
Probably