I would like to start this chapter with a thanks to my newest reader who favorited the story. Thank you khayla312! And to also state to the Guest who left me a review. Thank you, it's nice to hear you repeat what I said in one of the earlier chapters and to know that this is a waste of time. Thanks! XD
It wasn't long after that the pair was heading back toward Kaede's Village, tho they were not headed for the village itself.
"So, Inuyasha and Kagome are back already?" the elder Miko asked in surprise. She hadn't seen the pair return and surly they would have checked in with her, at least Kagome would have as they had formed an unlikely relationship.
"Ah, they did, but before they had even taken a moment to stop they were off again, well, more like the Lady Kagome was off again to the Bone Eater's Well with the half demon following in a rather," he paused as if to think of the word he wanted to describe the moody male. "Pissed off state." Kaede shook her head. Of course he was pissed off because in the last few weeks that the girl from the future had been helping to correct what she had done in regards to the jewel, she had also disappeared into the well back to her time making the Hanyou irritated with all that crossed paths with him. She herself was used to his behaviors and took it in stride, but the other villagers, tho finding it rather funny also found him quite terrifying when the girl left him behind. Looking toward the area where the well resided she let a chuckle pass her lips as the sound of Inuyasha's attempt to keep the girl on this side echoed.
"Just you fucking wait one fucking minute!" came a bellow of heat from the Hanyou who chased behind the girl that rode her bike as fast as she could down the dirt roads, her yellow bag bouncing behind her with each bump on the rode. She didn't even spare him a glance as she hoped to get to the well before he had even noticed her disappearance, but he had figured it out when she had been halfway there and thus it had turned into a race.
"I have a life, ya know!" she yelled back as the well came into view. Unfortunately for her so did Inuyasha as he jumped over her, his feet landing on the edge of the well. She skidded to a stop, barely quick enough but fast enough that she didn't hit said well and tumble over or she landed into the irate arms of the male glowering down at her. "MOVE!" He shook his head, his ears flattening at the tone of her voice.
"You can't be running off all the damn time!" he growled lowering the top half of his body so that his eyes were level with her brown orbs. "We need to get the shards of the jewel first! They are more important than whatever you have going on over there!" Her eyes narrowed at his words. As if her own life were not as important as the shards? Really, not that it wasn't true that her studies paled in comparison to keeping the powerful shards out of demon and human fingers' alike, but in her time grades were what defined your status and to her she needed to get back over there and take care of it. It was bad enough that she had missed so many classes as it was, but she wasn't planning on living in the Feudal Era for the rest of her life!
"I told you that I would return when I was done! What more can you ask of me?!" She moved off the bike, her eyes watching to see if her words had any impact on the Hanyou before her, but sadly he just stood his ground and she knew that she wouldn't be able to get around him without pissing him off further. Pursing her lips she debated on if she would use the one word that would get her passage to her time, but in the end would not only piss him off and cause him to possibly follow her to her time. She needed to get back home and he needed to understand, but that would never happen and she was sure this would always be the case when she had to travel back for her studies or to visit her family. "I know that you can't understand with that one track mind of yours, but I have an exam to take tomorrow and I need to study!" she almost wailed in anger. "I am already having issues with my attendance and now you want me to flunk out?!" He didn't understand those words, but he could hear her pleading tone and the fact that she was obviously pissed off.
"Fine," he spat, but just when she thought that he was actually allowing her to go he turned around and grabbed the biggest boulder he could find. Her brow rose in confusion as to what he could be doing with it, but when he turned to look down at the entrance of the well she got the gist pretty quickly. "If I destroy it then you can't go back to that strange place!" Her eyes grew wide as he made to drop the boulder and without a second thought as to what would happen she began to scream out that word.
Osuwari! Osuwari! Osuwari! Osuwari!Osuwari! OSUWARI!" With every chant of the word his beads glowed brighter, his body dancing in his effort to keep the rock over his head and his body upright. In the end he lost, the boulder crashing after his body hit the ground. Looking at him with a bit of pity until his muffled 'bitch' comment hit her ears and her eyes narrowed and she hissed the word one more time to ensure that she still didn't appreciate being called that word. Jumping into the well she said, "Do not come over here! I will be back in a few days!" And with that she was gone, leaving the Hanyou on the ground, his pride shattered again along with his spine.
Kagome stood up, her eyes turning to the roof off the well house just in time to find her face hit with something that splashed her with a distinct smell of sake. Growling in irritation she found her grandfather looking down at her in surprise, and seeing her anger a little bit of worry. Kagome was known to be a nice girl, but when you got on her bad side, like Inuyasha, you found yourself in a world of hurt.
"Grandfather!" He backed up at her scream of frustration. She was going to have to take a bath now, not that she had much time before she had to head to school. Good thing that I stopped wearing my school uniform over there... She had realized early on that fighting demons in a school uniform was just not practical as she would end up on her face with her panties exposed to the world or she would have to buy another outfit when her mother couldn't repair the damage done to it. Climbing out from the well she noticed that her brother, Sota, was there waiting and she knew why he was waiting too. "He didn't come back with me," she stated firmly. At his crestfallen face she shook her head. He knew that she had not allowed the half demon back with her after the last time he had come over with her. Sighing she shook some of the sake off of her and headed toward the house, her feet sloshing in her now wet socks. Cringing at the weird feeling she took them off at the back door into the house and yanking the socks off she took them with her to put in the hamper with the rest of her dirty clothing.
Thirty minutes later found her with Sota heading down the shrine steps just as a woman got out of taxi, her face down looking at a flat box in her hands. She didn't make eye contact with them, but as she walked away from the shrine, passing within a foot of Kagome a feeling crept down the raven haired girl's spine. When she looked back over her shoulder she found herself frozen at the feeling that was coming off of the woman whose back was now to her, but she turned back and blowing it off with the knowledge that this wasn't the past. There were no youkais in her time and she was just coming down from the alertness that came from being in the Feudal Era. Forcing herself to relax she rushed off to school, unaware that the feeling she had been feeling was correct and that she should have stopped to listen to her gut giving her a warning.
Upon entering the school grounds she was swamped by her three friends and then a surprise appearance from Hojo, a boy who she had gone to school with a for a while now and although most of the girls fawned over the cute boy she found no attraction to him. He was just another student to her, abet one that seemed to choose this moment in time to approach her with a gift. She looked at him as he held it out for her, her expression saying a lot, but when he told her why he was giving her a gift and after all her friends seemed to believe from her grandfather's mouth she found that she was quite upset.
"For your bunions," he clarified, although with all the elderly ailments she was beginning to think that her grandfather was using her time in the Feudal Era to his advantage. Forcing a smile to her lips she thanked him and quickly made an exit from the conversation. Her friends followed close behind her, jealous that the boy to be bound to was giving her gifts all the time. Every time she came back from the past she found a new illness that she was "ailing" from and a new gift from the coveted male.
"Are you dating Hojo?" her friend Ayumi gushed out, her eyes going glossy at the thought of her friend dating the more popular classmate. Eri squealed at the idea, but all girls quickly crashed when Kagome shook her head.
"No way," she stated. "With all that is going on in my life now," Including in the past... "I don't have the time." Her friends didn't take that answer too well, but at the same time they knew with the fact that soon they would find themselves in high school and her being the one that was struggling the most, that she was probably right. Trying to get them to drop it she headed into the school, but her friends wouldn't relent about the fact that the one heart throb of their school was interested in her while she seemed cold to the idea of dating him or any male.
"Do you have a boyfriend already?" Yuka inquired, her eyes narrowing on her friend as they made their way to their classroom, the girls following her to her desk, still watching her for any indications of her love life. Frowning she shot that idea down as well, telling them that as she had said before she had no time for such trivial things as a boyfriend.
"I wouldn't even have time for dating or anything with school and shit," she muttered, hoping again that they would get the idea and leave it alone, but her friends were like a dog with a bone. At that thought she giggled, this caused them to move closer in question to that sudden mirth. "Seriously you guys!"
"What would be your type?" Yuka asked her. All of them grew quiet for a moment as she looked thoughtful, the words spilling out of her mouth without her even thinking about it.
"Well, he needs to be kind and thoughtful as well as not being the violent type or controlling," she listed off as thoughts of Inuyasha flooded her brain. "He can't be selfish or short tempered." Their eyes grew wider with every word. They were coming to the conclusion that Kagome had been lying to them and she indeed had a boyfriend, but at that moment she seemed to go into that very mind, forgetting that she was in school. I'm sure that he is cursing up a storm about me and all those sits I had to throw his way. Scoffing she shook her head. "He should have known better than to think he could control me." When a gasp hit her she realized that she had said that last bit out loud as well as in her mind. God dammit. But before her friends could bombard her with questions as to why she had said that the teacher for her period walked in, telling the class to be seated. She felt the weight of all the eyes on her, their questions burning in their eyes, but thankfully they couldn't say anything at the moment and hopefully they would forget. Tho I'm more than certain they won't let this go.
Kagome found herself feeling rather down the next day after all the tests were taken and her time to return to the Feudal Era drawing closer. Sighing as her friends walked out from the school she knew by the look on their faces what they wanted to talk about, but as they drew closer the sound of a car's horn blaring and the squeal of tires on assault drew her attention from them. She turned just in time to see a woman get struck by a car, the momentum from the hit causing the car to bounce off of the woman and toward Kagome. Brown eyes wide as it all seemed to move in slow motion, the car squealing in protest to the strikes it had taken, the sound of her friends screaming at her to move and her own movements to roll away. In the end when the dust cleared Kagome found that she was okay, a minor scratching from the roads, but otherwise okay as she noted the car had been further from her than she had thought.
What now held her attention was the body of the woman who had been struck. Where was she?! All that lay testament to what she was looking at, that she wasn't crazy and that there had just been an accident. There was blood...The car was still crashed in the wall of the school...But where was the body? "Kagome!" She turned to see her friends there, but it was almost like her ears were plugged, their voices coming from far away. She turned to where they were pointing and horror quickly filled her heart before it fell into her stomach. The people who had been in the other car were slumped back, but there was not a head on either of them. She turned back as everything seemed to resume at normal and promptly felt the energy she could only describe as demon energy, its chilly aura making her shudder. It was strange to her as she had only come to find herself being able to track demonic energy in the last week or so.
She looked up and around her but as she was still new to this she still couldn't point out the exact location of the demon. Only Inuyasha could do that, his nose so powerful that it could tell you what you ate two days prior. Running across the street she noted more blood splatter and then suddenly she found herself face to face with what she had been seeking and instantly her mind blank in fear as she recalled what she was looking at. Noh Mask! Just the thought of what that thing could do was about to be shown to her if she didn't move, but she didn't need to figure that out as Inuyasha jumped down and removed her from her certain death. She looked up in surprise as he dropped her down in a yard clear from the Mask for the moment. "I thought so," he stated. At her surprised look he looked away for a moment, as if in thought. "Your brother, Sota, was in the well house and well I figured something was up." She raised a brow. Her brother in the well house?
"Um, okay, its a good thing you're here because that thing has a shard of the jewel in its forehead." It came out as a jumbled mess but he seemed to get the gist of it, though his brow did raise in question to her sudden change in attitude.
"I saved you, but now I want an apology for the other day," he stated, his heroic status dropped a notch. At her surprised and confused gaze he clarified as if she were stupid. "You know. The stream of sits you did to me the other day in my era." She narrowed her gaze, her brows coming down.
"Really?" she whispered harshly and in a disbelieving tone that became more pissy with each question that she voiced. "You are really something, aren't you? So fucking sorry that I hurt your feelings because what you need is so much more important than what I, a mere woman, would need to do." The sarcastic tone lost on him as he accepted her apology. OMG? Did he just ignore my tone or does he really not understand sarcasm? He turned from her, his ears twitching.
"It's here," was all he said before just seconds later the very bulk, blob of human parts, some still complete with their accessories of rings or bracelets. It was even flesh colored as its body bulged and moved in such a sick manner that Kagome found her stomach turning. She would have to get over this squeamish reaction to things that she had seen in movies and hadn't felt the need to throw up. Maybe not knowing such things exist made it less sickening to realize then when you see it? "What is that thing?" he hissed in disgust. Oh that made her feel better, to at least know that being half demon he still didn't find this normal.
"The Noh Mask," she stated in a low voice, not sure why the thing wasn't attacking, but still spilling information out, "The shard is in its forehead, just between the eyes." He nodded as the mask began to talk in a rather effeminate tone that shook with several over tones from its victims.
"I am the Adhering Mask, and I was back in the era where someone careless brought me joy as a fragment of the shattered Shikon no Tama found itself embedded in me. I grew to yearn for my own body, but these humans are useless, breaking easily and as quickly as I consume them." Its eyes turned to Kagome. "That's why I want the jewel shards you have on you." She shook her head, her hands clenching on the jewels that she had around her neck in a small jar, the cork top holding the few shards they had. "I must have them and I will eat you if I must since my other snacks have already been digested." The pair watched as its face split down the middle, vertically splitting the face to reveal some rather sharp, abet wooden looking teeth that seemed to grow longer as its craw widened. Inuyasha pulled back for a second before jumping forward, his claws ready to do some damage.
"I'll don't care what you have to say cuz all I have to say is you are too full of yourself!" his claws tearing a chasm in the orgy of bodies as the mask screamed out, its hands still trying to reach the jewels. As Inuyasha surveyed his work Kagome moved forward, looking for which head held the jewel when the mass on either side of her began to shift, Inuyasha's ears twitching as he managed to grab her upper arm and pull her out in time, neither of them sustaining any injury from the enemy. Was it because it was too bulky to move quickly or was they were already working in a very easy camaraderie after weeks of acclimating to each other? The mask let out an exasperated growl at its failed attempt to obtain the jewels, but it wasn't done as it backed away from the pair, its eyes rolling around as it looked for another target to acquire and that it did as someone familiar to Kagome walked by on his way to her home.
"Hojo! Run!" the male looked up, his eyes meeting the creature that aimed to digest another source of energy for it's bulky form. He turned to run and with the mask's attention elsewhere Inuyasha pulled his sword and aimed where Kagome had pointed out the jewel earlier. With a swing of his giant fang, the mask split horizontal, the shard falling to the ground as the mask itself seemed to burn, flame-less, into ash. Kagome sighed at the save and rushed over to grasp the shard, Inuyasha looking proud for a moment. His eyes gleamed knowing they had another shard, but he also noted that a male approached them, the male she had been calling out to.
"Hobo?" he questioned to himself. "What a strange name." When the other male smiled at Kagome and handed her something, his brow rose and his ears twitched to try and listen in. She just took the wrapped item and seemed kind of uncomfortable, the scent of it blowing toward him on the wind, as well as the emotional scent of the male, but he just blew it off. It wasn't his business and in regards to her and what she did on this side of the well, well he could care less. Turning and heading back to her house, he grabbed her arm and yanked her away from the other male. "Now it's time for us to go back," he stated as she sputtered angrily from being yanked around again. "You have already fulfilled your duties to this place."
I appreciate all the people who took time out of their day to read my fanfic, and although I wished I owned Inuyasha (In more ways then one) I do not and hence borrow the characters for my story, using the story line of the original to twist pieces to what I would have loved to see in the show. :)