Greetings and salutations. I know I haven't written in a while and I'm
sure you're all foaming at the mouth for more of the story. Sorry to
keep you waiting, but I've come back to the US and haven't had a lot of
computer access. I want to take some time to thank a friend of mine who
has been very supportive. She keeps yelling at me, when she can, to get
this done. Thank you, Joanna. If if weren't for you, this thing would
probably still be in my notebook (she started making me type it because
she can't read my handwriting.). The bad thing about being back in
America, other than missing my friends, is how royally screwed up my typing
has become. Ah, well... Also, I know this one is short, but, I want you
to know I'm still alive. I'm not past the pre-written part yet, either.
Also, I've had numerous problems trying to upload this thing from a Mac. Keep your fingers crossed. This may or may not make other chapters longer in coming.
Chapter 7
She was just getting to doze off when she felt it--that unmistakable
surge she got when Kagome used the well. She was bolt upright in a moment
and heading for the entrance of the cave when she remembered her new
form.
For a moment, she hesitated, but then she thought that maybe she'd
check on her--make sure her new puppy wasn't using her for a chew-toy. So,
off she went, boobs and all, at lightening speed, jumping through the
trees when flying didn't prove as fast as she hoped.
"I over...did it a ... little..." Inu-Yasha panted, out of breath as he
arrived at Kaede's and rested in a tree. Kagome was fetching wood for
Kaede and Inu-Yasha was caught by surprise as she rounded the corner
with a heap of wood stacked in her arms.
She looks happy, she thought bitterly looking at the smile on her face.
Kagome paused unsurely and Inu-Yasha shrank against the treee branch,
certain she'd been found out, but ater a minute, it became evident that
she'd only been daydreaming or dawdling and she entered the hut with a
loud, "Okay!"
Inu-Yasha breathed a sigh of relief and watched the hut again. Soon,
Kagome had come out again and Inu-Yasha would have leapt to meet her,
showing her the "condition" she'd recently acquired. She didn't care
anymore. Travelling alone sucked and she was bored. At least with Kagome
along she'd have someone to argue with. She steeled herself for the jump
and was about to leave the branch when--
That SMELL---Inu-Yasha once again hunkered against the tree branch. She
brought Sesshomaru with her?!?!? her mind screamed. Her hands clenched
into fists.
On the grass, Kagome walked slowly. Ambled really. She was being slow
on purpose, even if she didn't realize it, hoping that Inu-Yasha would
show up. He never did, and with a sigh she climbed onto the edge of the
well.
Inu-Yasha leaned over her perch. What's she thinkin' about, anyway? she
wondered in a huff as the girl sat on the edge of the well unmoving.
Her breath caught as the girl looked back almost longingly and sighed.
She... She can't miss me can she? thought Inu-Yasha in shock. Her face
went red at the notion.
Finally, Kagome smacked her hands together in front of her face and
yelled, "What am I thinking?!? Good riddance! Here's to havin' a frikkin'
life again," she growled as she shoved off into the well.
"Wha---" Inu-Yasha got out.
"Who needs you, anyway?!?" yelled the half demon after her. She leapt
down from the tree. "Have your life, you stupid girl. I hope your new
puppy chews your face off!"
In the void, Kagome sneezed.
Inu-Yasha stomped along the road again, looking like a stubborn child
who had just lost her favorite toy and was refusing to admit that it
hurt.
Onlookers and passerby skirted her by a good distance as she growled to
herself about stupid humans and gave anyone who met her eyes the look
of death.
Trudging in such a way, she reached the cave again in about an hour. It
had only taken her 5 minutes to leave it. She worked her way to the
back, ready to go to bed and have dreams about strangling her brother.
Sesshomaru..... When had things turned so bad between them? She
couldn't pick out a single occassion that had been the turning point. Well
that's not true. For her it was her their father's funeral. Sesshomaru
didn't show up. It was all downhill from there. Sesshomaru had never
wanted anything to do with Inu-Yasha's mother and when she'd died not soon
after their father, Inu-Yasha had been left all alone. There were times
when she'd felt protected, watched over, but he was utterly alone and
then on his 10th birthday, the first attack came.
Sesshomaru had come at him from nowhere. Inu-Yasha would never have
admitted it, but that was the day his spirit died. His brother was the
only one he had left in the world. He shouldn't have turned on him--if
anything, he should have helped him. Or at least Inu-Yasha thought so.
Maybe that was the difference between demons and humans. Maybe that was
why he couldn't bring himself to finish off the idiot even if he hated
him. Deep down, there was that awful feeling that this bastard had been
the most important thing in his life.
And now he's trying to take the other one.
"God damn it," she seethed as she beat the wall with her fist. She hit
the hard rock until her hand came back bloody. If I get the Shikon no
Tama and change into a full demon, no one can ever hurt me again. Not
like Sesshomaru did, or Kikyo, or even mom and dad when they died. I'll
be as cold as Sesshomaru has always been and I'll be able to handle
anything, she thought bitterly.
Was that true? Had Sesshomar always been that way? A picture flashed in
her mind of a Sesshomaru bearing a genuine smile (albeit a tiny one)--a
smile that she'd seen on his face more than once when she'd been young.
They were the kind of smiles that had given her a swell of pride as a
child. Now they were a bitter memory and she pushed them out of her
mind.
They were never real, she reasoned. Probably just a facade to gain my
trust and undemine my ability to kill him. He knew I was a threat from
the beginning---bastard.
Her hands went to the wall again and it wasn't long before she was
exhausted and drifted off into a deep sleep.
The old man wound his way down the road in much the way he had on any
other day. He was humming to himself, in that habit that old men
sometimes have, kicking up dust as he shuffled along. It was nerely dusk and he
didn't think he could make it to town before dark. He hadn't counted on
his ox dieing on him. She had looked hale and healthy to him--not a day
over 30! There was no way he could get his cart to the town on his own
but he had allready been at least halfway there when Oushi-chan had
breathed her last and he had to reach the village by night. He wasn't
foolhardy enough to be out in the open near Inu-Yasha's forrest at night.
Who knew what kind of demons were lurking out there?
Something held him back and he heard a female voice say, "Oi."
The old man turned to see a white-haired dog-demon looking at him in
frustration.
The dog-demon pulled him close to her face and said, "Old Man--which
way is China?"
Stupid old fart... thought inu-Yasha-chan as she left Kaede's village
yet again. After the old man had told her he had no idea what China even
was, she was about to leave him there when he had asked politely if he
could accompany her to the village, as it was late and she ought not be
travelling by herself at night, youkai or not. She'd given him a look
of death and he'd given her an innocent one in return. She had cursed
and he had let it pass with a smile. This made her curse again, of
course. A few minutes of ambling along at his pace and Inu-Yasha ws about to
fall asleep on her feet, so she had made the old bag of bones get on
her back and flown him the rest of the way to the village. He had thanked
her profusely and gone to find lodgings ending up at Kaede's hut after
a few minutes of asking around. That was where Inu-Yasha had been at
the moment and the old man had chosen to inform the old woman (Kaede) of
Inu-Yasha's good deed.
"Anyway," said Inu-Yasha as the old man put a futon down where Kaede
had shown him. "This isn't a social call. Where is China, anyway?"
Kaede had let a wry smile come to her lips and had chuckled a bit.
"That is your style, isn't it? China is to the west--but perhaps you would
be best off finding out a way to remedy the situation rather than
finding the origin."
Inu-Yahsa chan eyed her susupiciously. "Why's that?" she demanded. Old
crone.
"The source may be a moot point."
"Feh--that's where you're wrong, old woman. It's never gonna' be a moot
point. I can find out about this damn curse while I'm trying to fix it.
Maybe you just don't want me to leave," she said archly.
Kaede looked at her seriously. She couldn't tell her that she was
afraid if Inu-Yasha left Kagome would fall for Sesshomaru and that the
longer he was gone, the better the chance would be for an attatchment
between the human and the full demon. If she told her that she would go off
into a sputtering fit about how Kagome meant nothing to him anyway and
to let the bastard have her.
"I just don't think you should give up your search for the shards yet.
Perhaps the full Shikon no Tama can cure the curse." It wasn't a lie,
not really. Kaede had no way of knowing wether the jewel would work or
not, but if it could turn a half-youkai into a full blooded human or
demon it could almost certainly be able to break a little curse. Couldn't
it?
Inu-Yasha's face was remotely placid and comtemplative. "Hm... I never
thought about that," she admitted. "And it'd also be a shame to waste a
lot of time in another country when the answer to my problem could be
right under my nose." There was a puse. "Okay," she said smacking her
palm with a fist and standing up. "So I'll start going after the shards
again."
She turned to leave. "Inu-Yasha --wait--"
"Mm?" she asked with the tired tone of a "Now what?" creeping into her
voice.
"Perhaps it would be best for you to travel during the day."
Inu-Yasha glared at her. "Are you going blind, old woman?!?!? Have you
forgotten what I look like? It's an embarrassment and no one is going
to see me like this if I can help it."
"But," said the old man, who had been relatively silent during the
whole thing as he had set up his futon. "There are many not so kind-hearted
demons lurking about at this time of night. If you meet up with one and
get yourself killed, everyone will see your form anyway."
Inu-Yasha had eyed him. The old freak had a point, but...
"Feh. What do you know? Ya' old kodger," she had said in a huff. "I'm
getting started on my quest and I don't need any frikkin' help or advice
from a couple of ricketty old humans."
"Or a spry young priestess and a flea?" asked Kaede, stirring the fire.
"Especially not those two idiots." Inu-Yasha folded her arms. "And
don't think I don't know that little idiot came crawling back here with--"
Inu-Yasha practically spat the name out-- "Sesshomaru."
Kaede had chuckled. "Yes, he's quite endearing as a puppy, isn't he?"
"Fuck that!" she had yelled, turning red.
"It might interest you to know that you and your brother have something
in common now..."
Inu-Yasha snorted. "Nothing about him interests me," but she didn't
move and stayd silent. Inu-Yasha wouldn't show it, but she'd become
nervous. It can't be about Kagome... can it? Am I that transperant?
"Your prayer beads--your brother now has a set of his own," she had
said with a smile.
Inu-Yasha had widened her eyes and a bitter half-smile had crept across
her face as she thought about her arrogant brother being slapped with a
"sit". She wanted details. "Izzat so?" she asked nonchalantly, but
Kaede'd known she'd piqued the half-demon's interest and had nodded.
"Did she try it out?" Inu-Yasha had asked, playing absently with the
hilt of the Tetsusaiga and feiging disinterest.
Kaede had nodded. "I think if he regains his true form that you'll have
a little vacation while he comes after me."
Inu-Yasha had smirked. "Didn't like it, did he?"
"Not a bit."
Inu-Yasha then had a somewhat satisfied look on her face and with a
smile had said, "Well, I'm off."
"Young lady--" the old man had said as he sat on the floor.
Inu-Yasha had balked at that and had to keep from bonking the guy on
his head with one of her swords. Instead, she had creaked her head around
to face him, her eye twitching.
"Thank you for all your help," he'd said with smile.
"Feh-- don't trouble yourself about it, Gramps," she had said as she'd
headed for the door.
"Be that as it may..." began the old man, " You need to learn to talk
more like a lady."
Kaede smiled.
Inu-Yasha began to tremble with the urge to smack the old fossil.
"O-oh?" she'd asked shakily.
"Girls shouldn't use such ugly language--especially ones as pretty as
you."
Stupid, stupid, stupid, old fart, she thought again, seething. Kaede
had been supressing laughter when the half-demon had left the hut. She
was going to start travelling during the day again, but she wasn't about
to tell the two humans that.
Inu-Yasha shook with anger and embarrassment and swore to curse a blue
streak from that day forward.
Coming soon: Chapter 8. "Ano sukebe wa DARE desu ka?!?!?" Monk-ey in
the mists.