I hope you all enjoy chapter 2 of for better or worse. I've been debating a possible sequel to this in addition to some other projects I've been working on- you can find details of any upgoing works/sequels in my profile!
Enjoy!
A thin ray of sunlight filtering through the trees woke the exhausted priestess the next morning. She let out a huge yawn, rolling her shoulders a little to get out the kinks, and wincing a little when the shoulder she'd slept on protested painfully. She peered carefully through the trees, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand to try and figure out what time it was. She guessed it to be mid morning.
Looking around, Kagome noticed the corpse of the demon was gone, though the ground was still stained with blood. She shuddered, turning her back to the clearing. To her surprise, she found an apple and a small pile of berries next to her bag and weapons, which had been placed neatly next to her by the tree sometime in the night. Normally, Kagome would have been terrified at the thought. But at that moment, the girl felt a sense of relief, at least she knew he'd stuck around somewhat.
She downed the apple quickly, taking her time picking through the berries as she collected her things to continue her journey through the woods. She was beginning to sense she was actually trespassing on a certain demon's territory, thus she tread cautiously, only stopping to examine plants and harvest the wild herbs or food she found along the way.
It didn't take long for her to sense him- he wasn't as subtle as he fancied himself- and to her surprise, his youki was much warmer and gentle than she would have initially thought. Kagome was used to seeing demons intent on destruction- thick, dark youki and foul auras. Her savior was anything but that. She knew he could sense her too, and wondered how long it would take him to confront her. As a gesture of peace, she slung her weapon over her shoulder and tucked the arrows away behind her back.
It was about an hour later, as she stopped to inspect a bush with deep red berries that her mysterious friend dropped down in front of her.
"I wouldn't eat those if I were you." His golden eyes were still guarded, and his ears were swiveling now and then as he took in the sounds of the forest around them. In a slightly better mood since her unexpected and permanent trip, Kagome smiled faintly.
"They're poisonous to demons, but the leaves are good for fever when they're prepared right." she offered him the remainder of the berries he'd given her, but he turned his nose away in refusal. She shrugged and tossed back the rest of them.
"I've also found some mint and wild onions." She pulled the small green plants with white bulbs out for the demon to inspect, and he took a cautious sniff in their direction.
"They're safe to eat. The bulbs can be added to stew as part of it, or the stems can be added in for flavor. Either way it's safe to eat."
He didn't respond, and Kagome had a feeling he was musing exactly what he wanted to say to her. She let him brood in silence for several minutes, focusing on collecting the leaves of the berry bush. After a while, she decided to speak-maybe she could save him the trouble.
"Thank you for saving me last night, and I'm sorry." His ears flicked in her direction and he looked surprised.
"-for the beads," she elaborated, nodding towards his neck. He grabbed them harshly, trying to pull them over his head.
"What the fuck are these things?!" He hissed, finally giving up on trying to remove them after several attempts.
"They're called subjugation beads. Normally, you would apply a word to subdue the wearer, but in this case, they were used as an anchor to save your life." She looked away.
"I'm not exactly sure why I used that particular spell- it just happened. I only intended to keep him from hurting you. Apparently my power was needed to do so." His head shot up at her words "What did you say?"
Kagome frowned, "my power was needed to keep you from being killed?"
"You anchored your power inside this? You bound me to that?!" His eyes were wide, face taking a pale sheen to it. She hesitated, taking in his appearance.
"I didn't mean to do it that way, but yes." The half demon groaned loudly, once again struggling to remove the beads. "Wench, you need to get these off now. Do you have any idea what you've done?!"
"I can't remove them, I don't know how! I was banished before I finished my training." She abandoned the bush she was foresting and approached him.
"You don't know… don't you idiot humans understand what happens when you bind yourself to a demon?" Kagome's brow wrinkled as she thought, doing a quick mental overview of her training to try and understand what he was saying.
"I don't understand, what do you mean 'bind'? I only put my power in the necklace." He rolled his eyes, practically snarling as he gripped the beads in one hand.
"You idiot. Demons take a mate by binding their energies. You didn't just put a necklace on me, you wench! You bound us together!" He surprised her by suddenly gripping her face in one clawed hand and looked at her sternly in the eyes.
"You've just bound yourself to a demon for life if you can't take this spell off."
-0-
Kagome stepped out of her modest home to be greeted with clear skies and warm sunshine. It was a perfect, mid-summer day and Kagome knew without a doubt it was going to be a good one. She made her first stop to the temple, where the aging priest and her teacher made his home and was already beginning his morning tea. He greeted Kagome calmly and instructed her on the chores he wished for her to complete that day in addition to her shrine duties. Kagome began as he wished, cleaning the shine and weeding the small herb garden after finishing her morning prayers. Before noon, one of the villagers drew her from her weeding to tend to her sick child. Kagome examined the child and returned home to mix together medicine to ease the child's sickness. By then, it was lunchtime. She took a small break to fix some rice and miso soup before heading back to finish the garden.
Her weeding was promptly ended by a scream echoing around the small village. She leapt to her feet and quickly ran for her hut, gathering her bow and arrows and sprinting towards the edge of the village where she'd heard the scream. She was just in time to find an enormous demon of some kind standing over a group of terrified women on their way to the water well just outside the village. The women were cowering, whimpering and crying. Kagome readied an arrow and let it fly just as the beast reached for the women.
"Hit the mark!" Her arrow struck true, catching the creature's shoulder and throwing it back into the dust. The women cried in relief, one of them crying "it's Lady Kagome!" Said future priestess readied another arrow as the beast staggered to its feet, red eyes even more murderous than before. At least 10 feet tall, maybe more, with thick, muscled shoulders and large hands with blunt nails. Covered in a layer of shaggy fur and a mouth full of long fangs. The creature roared upon catching sight of her and made for her instead.
"Lady Kagome!" The seventeen year old turned briefly at the sound of her name to see the priest and several of the village men running towards her, all but the priest carrying some form of weapon.
"A barrier!" He chanted aloud as he ran, raising his hands and covering the area in front of them in a glowing purple barrier.
"I managed to wound it." she informed him as the men reached her side, the priest nodding to show he heard her as Kagome knocked her second arrow.
"It won't give up yet. I can sense much anger. We're in for a long fight." He promptly settled himself into a meditative pose, taking deep even breaths to focus on the barrier.
The beast roared and began to throw what Kagome would describe as a temper tantrum when it realized the barrier was in place.
"Hey UGLY! I wasn't finished with you!" Kagome watched in surprise as another joined the party, a man wearing red robes with a shocking amount of white hair.
"I haven't finished driving you the hell out of my forest!" It was then that Kagome realized it was him. He was a demon, or half demon, as she noticed the fuzzy ears on top of his head. Years ago, there had been rumors of a red demon stalking the massive forest that separated her village with its neighbors. Many of the merchants complained of the long journey from village to village, but were surprisingly unwilling to venture into the forest to ease their journey. Kagome had kept quiet over such complaining, deciding to keep her own knowledge of the red demon to herself. The red robed demon didn't wait for his enemy to acknowledge him, quickly launching himself at the beast, raking a handful of sharp claws down its arm and making the temper tantrum worse. With the demon's attention focused on the newcomer, Kagome decided now was the time to act.
With renewed purpose she carefully aimed her arrow, waiting until the demon was distracted enough to send her arrow flying- missing the half demon by inches as the arrow struck the beast in the armpit. The red clad demon turned to shoot Kagome a glare, and she was startled to see golden eyes glaring at her.
Angry at both his opponent and the priestess, the beast began to attack the barrier, banging enormous hands against the fragile structure and causing the priest to groan from the strain.
"HEY you ugly asshole! Your fight is with ME!" The half demon slashed at the beast again, distracting it as the barrier began to crack and fall apart. The priest was struggling profusely to keep the barrier up- but no avail. The barrier fell to pieces just as the beast flung the half demon, sending him crashing hard into the ground. Stunned, the half demon remained on the ground as the demon went in for the kill.
No! Something in Kagome screamed at her to act. So she did, quickly notching another arrow and aiming carefully for the demon, sending the shot flying and watching as it connected next to her other arrow under the arm, sending the demon screaming and cursing her name into the ground as her purifying power combined in three began to take effect. The half demon's eyes met Kagome, and she could see the shock, the depth of emotion of what she had done settling in them- she'd just saved his life.
"The demon has been defeated by Lady Kagome!" Said priestess jumped as the sound of her name, watching as the villagers began to cheer and chant for her. She felt a small sense of pride, but it quickly morphed into terror as the villagers began to approach the half demon- who was still alive.
"The other demon is still alive! Quick someone kill it!" Said demon began to growl, low in his throat as a warning.
No! Not him! Kagome's thoughts continued to chant, her body feeling frozen- fingers unable to draw an arrow and do what she'd been trained for.
The priest, partially recovered, took Kagome's bow and an arrow from her as he walked towards the demon, completely oblivious to the turmoil going on inside his pupil. He raised the bow, his spiritual power slipping easily around the arrow and making it glow.
"No!" Kagome's eyes snapped to the demon's at her cry, his golden depth boring into her blue one. Her body made the decision before her mind was even able to comprehend it, and suddenly her hands were clasped in front of her face, her lips reciting the spell that she had only just learned, and would never finish learning. Her hands began to glow, and flashes of light flew from her hands and settled around the neck of the half demon, startling him and the villagers around her. The priest hesitated, but it was too late. The arrow slipped from his fingers, shooting straight towards the silver haired demon. At the last second, the glowing stopped and in its place was a necklace made of beads. The beads glowed briefly, and a barrier of pink light instantly appeared before him, stopping the force of the glowing purple arrow in its path and sending it clattering harmlessly to the ground at his feet, the spiritual power disappearing instantly.
For a moment, no one said anything. The demon's eyes were still boring into Kagome's, deep and the color of melted gold. She could still see the emotions swirling, the questions, the disbelief on what she had done. And then suddenly he was gone, only a red blur disappearing into the forest from whence he had come. Kagome startled when she realized everyone was staring at her, the priest who was her master and mentor was shaking his head. And not for the first time, the priestess in training was filled with fear.
What had she done?
-0-
His anger had cooled a lot over the night, so much that he took the time to collect food for her, had carted the dead demon's body away and even moved her weapons as a somewhat attempt at an apology for yelling. And yet, every time he tried to leave her, to return to his own home- he couldn't do it. He found himself back in the tree, staring down at her and listening to her breathing, taking in her floral scent. It was actually kind of nice. She had soft features, and skin tanner than most women from her duties outside. Her hair was dark and pretty, tied back to keep the locks tamed and out of her face. And kami her eyes- he could have sworn his heart had stopped when his eyes had met her blue ones. So full of depth and despair. Then she'd saved his life, and he knew the punishment it had caused her-he'd heard the entire episode of her banishment, of the crime that was laid against her.
He'd tried to leave her, Kami knows he'd tried to mind his own damn business the moment she'd left her village on her own. She had barely left the village before the demons had pounced on her, giving chase into the forest. He was impressed, she managed to evade them a good several hours. Unfortunately, they'd marked her as the killer of their kin from the moment she left the village, and stalked her until they wandered too far into his territory and needed to learn a lesson.
At least, that's the lie he told himself about why he saved her.
He couldn't ignore the strong protective instinct he felt towards her, the need to keep her safe at all costs. His instincts were screaming at him to take her home, to hide her and keep her safe like she belonged with him. Her scent was good- almost too good. He'd never seen this girl before in his life- why did her saving him affect him so strongly? There was definitely something weird going on. He did his best to ignore it- instead, he studied her, followed her as she explored his territory. Stopping at every tree and bush to examine them, almost as if she was looking for something?
These human wenches were strange beings.
He knew she knew he was there, could feel her gentle power brush his demonic aura. Yet, he didn't know what he wanted to say, or why the hell he couldn't just walk away and leave the damn woman alone.
He found the perfect excuse when she stopped to examine berries that he knew were poisonous. But she already knew that, of course she did, being an all powerful priestess that she was.
And then she dropped a bombshell on him, turning his world upside down and making everything clear- why he couldn't leave her alone, why he felt the strangest urge to protect her.
She had bound him like a dog- hook, line and sinker, and there was nothing he could do about it.
-0-
"Oh Kami." Kagome breathed, her knees suddenly feeling weak. "When you say for life, do you mean…"
"As a mate. Lover, whatever the hell you humans want to refer to it as." He let go of her face as she let out a squeak of surprise and clapped both hands over her mouth.
"You mean like a husband and wife?!" He thought for a moment, comparing what he knew of human rituals and finally shrugged.
"Yeah, I guess that would be the right term for it."
"But… all I did was use a spell!" Her new found companion rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands inside the sleeves of his haori.
"You bound your power inside this necklace to me, thus binding your powers with my youki. How much more bound can you get? Unless you can get this damned thing off, you're stuck with a demon for life."
She let out a loud groan, "there isn't a way for me to take it off. I told you, I never completed my training. I wasn't done learning that spell, and now that I've been banished, there isn't a priest or priestess alive who will teach me anything."
"Great, just great. I never asked to be bound to an annoying human wench like you!"
"Well if I'm so annoying, why are you still here?!" The second the words left her mouth, Kagome regretted them. In a flash he was gone, and the former priestess found herself alone in the dense forest.
"Can I at least know your name?" She called out loudly, huffing when she received no answer.
Feeling somewhat defeated, the former priestess returned to her foraging, hoping maybe to stumble across a stream for something more fulfilling than berries and fruit. The word of her banishment would spread quickly, she could never go back to living among normal humans. She was going to have to make it somehow. Maybe she could find a cave?
Kagome was mulling this over when she- quite literally- tripped and fell into a cold stream.
"Ack!" The young priestess groaned as she pulled herself up the bank, her entire lower body up to her chest was soaked through- and of course, she had nothing else to wear.
Could this day get any worse?
Thankfully, she'd dropped her bow and supplies on the bank when she tripped, saving them from being ruined and completely unprotected. But as she huddled on the bank, feeling the cold seep into her skin, she found she'd rather be defenseless than miserable.
"How are you a priestess and still almost completely useless?" A gruff voice sounded behind her, and it took everything she had not to roll her eyes.
"While I appreciate your concern-" she glared as she said this, "-I've just had my entire life change in the matter of a day. I've been banished from my home with almost nothing, stripped of my priestess status and I don't even have another robe to change into. So forgive me if I'm struggling just the tiniest bit!" Her tone was harsh, but she figured it was justified after the last two days she'd had.
"Keh!" Was his reply to her words. She huddled back on the bank, refusing to look at him as she curled her knees to her chest in an attempt to get warm. She missed the rustling of cloth behind her, and suddenly found her view blocked by a tanned, clawed hand holding a red cloth in front of her.
"Just take this for now. Seein' as I'm stuck with you, there's no sense in lettin' you die of cold." Genuinely surprised, Kagome took the cloth from his hand, her own shaking- whether from the cold water of disbelief, she didn't know.
"Don't look," she mumbled softly as she prepared to change.
"I wasn't gonna!" He snapped back, and despite that, Kagome giggled as she shed her own clothing and slipped the red haori on, managing to tie it modestly and comfortably at the same time. It was very soft and warm, and smelled generously like the demon before her- a woodsy mix of smells.
"Do you mind if I ask you your name? I never did find out." She had the satisfaction of knowing she'd thrown him off guard when he looked at her in surprise, crossing his arms over his white kosodo.
"Keh, I'm a demon, shouldn't you be running scared? Or do you make it a habit of asking names first?" Kagome once again fought back the urge to laugh, she was surprisingly comfortable around him, despite his rude behavior.
"No, I was only curious. My name is Kagome, I was a priestess in training at the village- before, well you know." She carefully gathered her wet clothing, taking her time spreading it out over rocks so it would dry quickly.
"So, your name?" She dared press, pretending she wasn't as interested as she was. She could sense his uncertainty around her, so she stayed quiet, pretending to look at a plant on the bank.
"Inuyasha." He finally said after several minutes, still looking uncomfortable.
"Inuyasha." She repeated, liking the way the name rolled off her tongue. It certainly suited him.
"It's nice to meet you, Inuyasha."
If I remember correctly, Kagome has blue eyes in the manga, which is why I went with blue eyes instead of brown.
See you next week!